The Birth Order Effect
by Zairihannah
Summary: When Donatello's desire for answers leads to something he never expected, his world is turned upside-down. When a new threat surfaces who seems to have no end of bloodlust, things go from bad to worse. Will Donatello come to his senses, or will something worse than he and his brothers ever imagined come true? NOW COMPLETE!
1. The Miracles of DNA

11

**AN: Although this is my first published story, it is most certainly not the first story I've written. I have been reading FanFiction for awhile now and just recently gained interest in the TMNT fandom. So, if the characters are slightly OOC, that is why. Any profanity will be bleeped out in this story. I know a lot of people do not care for the FF season, but I liked it. Basically, this fic is what I would have made the second season be about. I hope you enjoy it and I think everybody knows I do not own the turtles or any other characters from the show in this particular chapter. But, I'll let you get on with the story now.**

**The Birth Order Effect**

"Why exactly does a tech company need a genetics lab anyway?" Donatello asked as he gazed around the fairly small room in wonder.

Cody Jones shrugged. "No idea. Now that Uncle Darius is out of the picture and I'm the official CEO of O'Neil Tech, I was given more detailed blueprints of the building. I saw something labeled 'Biotech Lab,' and I just had to check it out!"

"It sure is something," Donatello continued. Although he was first an engineer, he did have a certain fascination with biomechanics and genetics research. After all, he was the resident medic of the family, if only because he was the only one anywhere near qualified.

The lab appeared to be the stereotypical 'evil scientist lab' that one might see in a late night horror film. In the center of the room were large cylindrical tubes clustered tightly together with panels scattered with more levers and buttons than Donatello could count surrounding the base. The room was actually quite similar to the genetics lab at the Shredder's lair after his and his brothers' first infiltration of the extensive Foot headquarters.

But, that had been over a hundred years in the past. This genetics lab appeared to be more high tech, although not nearly as much so as Donatello might have guessed given the time frame. "You know, I always expected it to be more . . . extravagant, I guess."

Cody laughed lightly. "Unfortunately, genetics experimentation hasn't progressed nearly as fast as other sciences. We have still barely scratched the surface of all of the secrets of DNA. However . . ." he trailed off, leading the way to the far corner of the room were a large computer screen stood, "there is one thing we have been able to accomplish."

Donatello stared up at the screen in bemusement. "Uh, it's a computer." As much as the genius turtle adored his computers, he saw nothing different, let alone unique, about this simple large blue plasma screen that resembled a flat screen TV.

Cody rolled his eyes. "Thank you, Donatello," the turtle glowered playfully at him, and the boy smirked back. "The screen isn't what's important." He reverentially touched the computer panel mounted on the wall beneath the screen. "Behind this panel is a multitude of wiring and equipment that I couldn't even begin to explain. _That_ is what makes this so special."

"Uh huh," Donatello had guessed the main part of the computer was hidden in the walls, but that still didn't answer the question of _What the heck the thing actually did?_

"I see you are still unconvinced," Cody continued as if the turtle had not even spoken. "This computer here can correctly read someone's DNA, measure the progress of growth or deterioration, depending on the age of the individual, and correctly determine that person's age down to the last _millisecond_."

"Uh h—" Donatello's thoughts immediately ground to a halt at the boy genius's words. "Wait, WHAT?!"

"Ah, so now you are impressed," Cody grinned impishly. _He spends way too much time with Mikey_, Donatello thought irritatingly.

As Donatello reached out to touch the screen, a thought occurred to him. Something that he had wanted to know all his life, but had never brought up to anybody. The scientist within him liked to know cold, hard facts. No guesses or assumptions were allowed. And most of Donatello's life he had been forced to make assumptions because science simply wasn't advanced enough to answer his questions.

Until now. "Cody," the turtle began, unsure of how to word his question. "Do you think it would work on—turtles?"

Cody blinked in surprise. "Why?" Then it struck him. "You want to know how old you all are."

Donatello nodded. "We celebrate our birthday, but it isn't the same. We aren't even exactly sure how old we are. It would be nice to know, you know?" Cody nodded wordlessly. "And, I know that we're all the same age and all, at least I'm _assuming_ we are all the same age," he paused to sneak a glance at his human companion, who nodded to encourage him to continue, "but, I guess I've always wondered about our birth order, you know?"

Cody looked surprised. "You mean, you guys don't know?"

"Splinter never saw us hatch," Donatello supplied. "And we certainly don't remember. There just wasn't any way to know. When we were younger, I might have been able to get an idea based on our rate of development, but I was certainly too young at the time and it wasn't as if I had access to the equipment anyway." He sighed. "It's just something that's, always bothered me, I guess."

"Say no more!" Cody interrupted the turtle's trip down memory lane. "All you need is a sample of each of your brother's blood and you can know exactly how old each of you are!"

"Which will in turn mean we know our birth order," Donatello finished, high-threeing Cody. "I can't wait to tell the others!"

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

"So, let me get this straight, Donnie," Leo interrupted the overly excited genius's long winded explanation. "You're telling us that 2105 has the technology to figure out exactly how old each of us is, when our birthdays are, and our birth order?"

Donatello nodded excitedly. "Yes! The machine can correctly read our DNA to figure out the exact rate of our development and can even measure how old our cells are!"

"Uh, Donnie?" Mikey interrupted this time, raising his hand uncertainly. Donnie nodded at him, too excited to be irritated at the second interruption. "I don't know much about science, but. Aren't cells continually dying and being replaced by new ones?"

Donnie might have been surprised by the ingenuity of the question if he wasn't still so fascinated by O'Neil Tech's resident geneticist's explanation of exactly how the DNA Reader, as it was called, worked. "Although that may be true with most cells, brain cells do not reproduce. Apparently, all it takes is a simple reading of the mitochondrial DNA, which will then result in—"

"What I can't understand," Raph growled from his place leaning against the wall, "is why ya even care about how old we are and stuff. It ain't like it matters in the long run."

"Perhaps you do not care, Raphael," Donnie quipped, an unfamiliar coldness in his voice at his brother's dismissal of something he had wondered his entire life. "But, _I_ do, and, believe it or not, yours is not the only opinion that matters."

All other occupants of the room, Serling, the turtle brothers and their sensei, and Cody, stared at the normally passive turtle in surprise. Donatello was capable of quite scathing insults when he felt like it.

Raph grumbled, clearly miffed at the remark, but a little wary of his brother's temper. Clearly, this was important to Donatello. When he got an idea in his head, there was no getting rid of it.

"Donatello," Splinter interrupted the uneasy silence that followed his son's somewhat uncalled for comeback, "if this is important to you, then you have my full support. But, remember, my son," he continued, holding up a claw and waiting until every one of his sons had their eyes on him before continuing, "your age does not matter. Your position in this family need not change based on this test. You need not change to fit a 'mold'."

A grin split Donnie's face. Although he had heard his sensei's words, he had not _heard_ him. The difference between hearing and listening. As far as he was concerned, the 'birth order mold' as it was often called, mattered a great deal. Not that he thought the eldest turtle should automatically become the leader of their team; Leo was clearly the turtle for that job. But, he did feel that the eldest should have more responsibilities than the others and that the youngest should be coddled, to some extent anyway.

"Don't worry, Father," Donnie bowed to his sensei, his thoughts already returning to what the results of this experiment could mean for their future, or, er, past future. "The experiment is strictly for the sake of knowledge."

"Why do I get the feeling that he's lying?" Mikey mumbled to Raph, who snorted in agreement. Mikey grinned stupidly at Raph, and the larger turtle reached up to gently _thwack_ him on the back of the head. Mikey smirked back and returned his attention to Donny, whom he had always considered his closest brother. "He is _way_ too excited about this."

Their purple clad, genius brother had already disappeared from the doorway, dragging a reluctant Cody behind him. Serling watched after them for a moment before sighing. "I do hope that Donatello knows what he is doing. Young master Cody really should not permit him to use the company's equipment for something so frivolous."

"It's important to Donnie," Leo interjected from his place standing by the large floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the back wall of the main room, his arms folded across his plastron.

"I still don' understand why," Raph muttered, trotting over to join his brother. "This whole thing is stupid. Who cares about who of us is older?"

"So, what you're saying, Raph," Leo began with a smirk, an evil thought occurring to him, "is that it wouldn't bother you at all if you found out you're the youngest?"

Raph reddened slightly, and Mikey stole the opportunity for a much needed jibe. "Awww, Raphie might be our baby brother!"

"Shuddup, Mikey!" Raph grumbled, copying Leo's posture and glaring out the window as if doing so would shut the smallest turtle up.

"Ah, come on, _Raphie_!" Leo joined in the fun. "Being the baby automatically means you're spoiled! You would love that, wouldn't you?"

"Shuddup, Fearless," Raph mumbled back, but he really wasn't in the mood for a fight. Plus, something in the back of his mind was telling him that they were right. He really _was_ hoping that he wasn't the youngest.

"What, no smart comeback?" Now Leo actually sounded worried. "No yelling? Swearing? Threatening to tear my limbs off? Have you been taking depressants?"

"What? No!" Raph exclaimed indignantly once the significance of his brother's question sunk in. "Don't be stupid! What, I'm not allowed to be CALM?! You know what, FEARLESS, I'm NOT calm! In fact, I'm pissed off! YOU WANNA MAKE SOMETHIN' OF IT?!"

"I rest my case," Leo replied smugly, having accomplished his goal.

"Screw you!" Raph snarled, although he knew he'd already lost. He'd let his anger get the best of him and had taken the bait. Maybe he seriously should consider depressants.

Splinter sighed and rolled his eyes. "Not that I do not enjoy this pointless argument of yours," Leo and Raph turned to give their sensei blank looks, "but I believe I will go tend my garden. Michelangelo, would you accompany me please?"

"Aw, do I HAVE to?" Mikey groaned. "I just reached Level 11 on this AWESOME new videogame and . . ." his voice trailed off after a pointed look from his sensei. "Ah, I mean, I'd love to?"

"Come," the rat insisted, leading his goofball of a son out the door and down the hall to the steeply inclined staircase leading to the roof. Splinter ascended the stairs with ease, using his cane to vault up the steps two at a time. His son, at first, followed suit, minus the cane, but soon began to lag behind.

"Exactly how many steps ARE there?!" He whined, his breaths becoming ragged. "Isn't there an ELEVATOR?"

"Of course," his sensei called back. "But then, you would not have received the valuable lesson that you are growing soft from too much time spent with your head strapped to that helmet."

Whaaat?" Mikey whined his catchphrase, gripping the stair rail so tightly that his knuckles turned a lighter shade of green.

"To be blunt," his sensei continued, rolling his eyes at the obnoxious reply, "you are out of shape."

"I get a good work out—out—of—that—game!" He gasped in relief when Splinter finally twisted the knob to the roof door and pushed it open, turning around to wait for his lagging behind son.

"Thank—goodness!" The ninja gasped as he collapsed at the top of the staircase in a heap, his arms spread out before him. "Now—what?"

"Now," the rat began, not even out of breath, "I will tend to my garden and you will assist me."

"Uhhh!" Mikey groaned. "Can't I just, like, watch you?" With a crack, his sensei's cane thumped the back of his continuously sore skull. "OW!"

"Quiet!" Splinter snapped, waving his cane in indication for his son to stop his senseless intimacy with the roof and join him. "I find gardening quite pleasant. It is almost as relaxing as meditation."

"Yeah, relaxing," Mikey grumbled as he yanked himself to his feet, dragging his leaden feet to the garden and kneeling down heavily. "Now what?" He grumbled, his thoughts already venturing to what he could be doing with his time—

"YAHH!" He squealed in alarm when he was suddenly jumped from behind, something larger and heavier than he was atop his shell and effectively holding him down. "WHAT THE—?"

"Jeez, Mikey," he whipped around and his eyes widened in disbelief at seeing Raph leaning against the doorway leading down to the building within and rolling his eyes. "Ninja are suppose' ta be 'aware of their environment.' Ya give us ninja a bad name."

"Thank you, Leonardo," Splinter interrupted Mikey's retort. "Michelangelo, you were not paying attention."

Mikey groaned when the weight lifted off of him and he rolled over to find Leonardo bowing to his sensei and frowning down at him. "Did you have something on your mind, Michelangelo?" His brother asked.

"No fair!" Mikey whined, folding his arms over his plastron and pushing his lower lip into a pout. "I wasn't ready!"

"Are you ready now?" Leonardo asked with a brow ridge raised in amusement.

Mikey paused to consider the question before scrambling to his feet and facing Leo. He took a minute to regain his balance before grinning triumphantly. "Yup!"

In the next half second that he saw Leo smile and movement in his peripheral vision, he knew he'd been tricked. Before he could move, he was flat on his plastron with an even larger and heavier weight atop his shell. "Ah, COME ON!" He protested. "That's cheating!"

"You said you were ready," Leo chastised with the hint of a smirk at the corner of his mouth. "Clearly, you were not."

"Thank you, Raphael," Splinter had watched the exchange with amusement in his eyes, proud that his two _in shape_ sons were so clever but disappointed that the other was so unaware of his surroundings.

He waited until the smallest turtle was back on his feet, grumbling to himself about stupid brothers and elevators, before beginning The Speech. "Michelangelo, clearly, you have been spending far too much time with your 'videogames' and not enough on your training. You failed to pass a simple awareness test. Therefore, you are forbidden any more videogame-ing," his sons groaned inwardly at that word, glad no one else had been around to hear, "until you are back _in shape_," Raph chuckled darkly and Leonardo nodded in agreement, "until I decide you have earned them again. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sensei," Mikey grumbled. "So, you only asked me up here to help with your gardening to test me?"

"That is right."

Mikey tapped his chin in thought, thinking of how to word his next question. "So, I _don't_ have to actually help you?"

"No," Splinter said, but cut off Mikey's relieved grin with his next words. "You will tend the garden by yourself. My stories are on." He gave the flabbergasted turtle a wry, wickedly toothy grin before trotting past his other two sons and toward another shack-like structure on the roof that contained the elevator.

Mikey glanced at his brothers out of the corner of his eye, and he grinned evilly to himself. "Hey, guys—?"

"In yer dreams, Mikey," Raph interrupted his well thought-out begging, complete with quivering lips and watery puppy-dog eyes. "Leo owes me a rematch at chess."

"Really, Raph," Leo sighed, rolling his eyes to the heavens. "Of the five hundred and sixteen times we have played, you won once, and that was because Mikey fell into our board and just so _happened_ to move yours and my pieces so that I would be in checkmate, and you whipped out that book on chess I gave you and declared that, that was a legitimate victory."

Raphael snarled, but smiled smugly that the one time he had decided to actually read a book, if only because he was tired of losing, was the one time it had actually _helped_ him. "Are ya _scared_, Fearless?"

"Yes, Raph," Leo replied dryly, no humor in his voice. "I have beat you five hundred and fifteen times and I am absolutely terrified that you will pull off a miracle and beat me _without_ inopportune luck."

Raphael blinked a few times before asking bluntly. "Is that a 'yes' then?"

Leonardo sighed and rolled his eyes. "If I agree to play you _one more time_, will you SWEAR to stop ASKING FOR REMATCHES WHEN YOU ARE CLEARLY AN INEPT IGNORAMUS WHEN IT COMES TO ANY FORM OF STRATEGY GAME?"

Raphael blinked so many times at that, that his eyelids appeared to be fluttering. "Uh?" He glanced back at Mikey. "Was I just insulted?"

"Dude," Mikey snapped back from his place digging around in the dirt with Splinter's spade, since he had no idea what exactly gardening entailed. "Do I _look_ like a walking encyclopedia?"

Raph decided that it didn't matter if he didn't understand the insult and returned his attention to his still somewhat put-out brother. "I agree to the terms. Whatever they are."

"In 'Dumb'," Leo growled through his teeth, "this is the last game. Period. No excuses. Nada! _¿Comprende?_"

"But what if—?" Raphael was trying to figure out if there were any loopholes in that.

"UNDER ABSOLUTELY NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL I PLAY ANOTHER GAME WITH YOU. EVEN IF A METEOR STRIKES THE EARTH AND, CONSEQUENTLY, OUR GAME. NOT EVEN IF OUR LIVES DEPEND ON IT," Leonardo spoke in that authoritative voice that always resounded with more volume than might be expected.

Raph blinked. "So, you'll play a game?"

"Oh, for the love of—yes!" Leo grabbed his brother's arm and dragged him toward the stairs.

"But there's an—" Raphael protested, flinging his arm to point at the other structure.

"Do you want me to play or not?" Leo snapped as the two disappeared down the stairs, Raphael reaching back to pull the door closed in surrender.

Mikey glanced up once they were gone and grinned evilly. Looking around to make sure no one was lurking in the shadows, he crawled over to the edge of the roof and pulled out a loose metal panel and reached behind it. He cried out in triumph once his hands closed around the object he sought and he pulled it out, hugging it to himself.

"Helix 2, portable version, here I come!" He sang as he sat back against the roof and glued his eyes to the screen.

**AN: I hope you enjoyed this first chapter! I already have the next several chapters written, I just need to edit a few things. They will be uploaded soon, but the more people I feel who enjoyed it, the faster I will update. And, of course, everybody loves reviews!**


	2. Busts and Time Outs

11

**AN: First of all, thank you to all of the people who reviewed the first chapter! This and the next two chapters were already written when I posted it, and I will post the third chapter fairly soon. I just want to finish chapter 5 first. Again, I do not own the turtles or any other characters from the show. However, I do own Dr. Klaas, the geneticist at O'Neil Tech, and the concept of the DNA Reader, and the basic plot.**

**The Birth Order Effect II**

"Doesn't he seem a little—out of sorts—to you?" Starly had joined Cody and the turtle genius in the genetics lab where Donatello was feverishly testing the machine with all of the different blood samples the lab held. She and the boy genius were standing beside the cluster of tubes in the center of the room, watching their companion.

"You've noticed?" Cody rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I thought it was just me."

"He's kind of—creeping me out," Starly wrinkled her blue nose in disgust when Donatello knocked a rack of test tubes over in his excitement, spilling the contents. "Perhaps we should intervene?"

"He is just excited," Dr. Klaas stood up from the computer where he had been taking inventory and joined his employer and the young intern. "But, I can attempt to speak to him about his rather, erratic, behavior if you wish so, sir."

"Oh," Cody watched his friend in trepidation. "I suppose he's all right. I can't imagine what it must be like, wondering something your entire life and then finally being able to receive answers."

Suddenly, the shell cell in Cody's back pocket went off and the boy jumped, snatching it up and flipping it open. After glancing curiously at the caller ID, he put the phone to his ear. "Hey, Leo, what's up?"

"_What's up_?!" The clearly exasperated turtle demanded. "_Have you any idea how long you've been gone? Where is Donatello? I want to speak with him! Is he with you? Is he still obsessing over this whole DNA thing? When are you getting back? And why on earth—?"_

"Leo, hold up!" Cody had pulled the phone a few inches from his ear at the onslaught of questions. "Relax! We're fine! Donnie's right here. He's been a little, preoccupied, is all."

Leo grumbled something before replying. "_I don't care if you have to _drag_ him away from that *#%& machine, just GET HERE!_"

Cody pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it in disbelief after the shrill dial tone informed him Leonardo had hung up. "Uh, he says 'hi'."

"Yeah," Starly was also staring at the phone in disbelief. "We heard." Dr. Klaas was making notes on his clipboard as if he had found the whole exchange amusing. Very few people, er, beings, in this case, would dare speak to the CEO of O'Neil Tech in such a way. He wished he could meet this "Leo" person.

"Uh, Donnie?" Cody called out to his friend with no response. "We have to head back now. Leo's pretty ticked that we aren't back yet, so . . . Uh, Donnie? Didja hear me?"

"Hm?" Donatello glanced up and smiled at Cody, although he kept glancing back at the computer, clearly irritated by the interruption. "Did you say something, Cody?"

"Uh, yeah," Cody continued, glancing at Starly, who shrugged, for support. "Your brother just chewed me out and if we don't leave like _right now_ I think he might actually come here and physically drag us both back."

Donnie blinked and glanced at the clock on the wall, realizing with a start just how late it was getting. "Ah, shell! Leo's gonna _kill_ me!" He snatched up the messenger bag at his feet, snatched a shell-shocked Cody's hand, and sprinted for the door, yelling back over his shoulder. "Thanks for letting me examine the machine, Dr. Klaas! Sorry to rush out on you! My brother has this thing about punctuality!"

The two geniuses hurried down the hallway, the turtle still dragging the human behind him. "I can't believe it!" Donnie was gushing as they turned down a hallway and he slapped the button for the elevator. "After all these years, I will _finally know!"_

"That's gre—" Cody began.

"Oh, how I have waited for this day!" Donnie giggled like a school girl who had just received a flirtatious look from her crush. "Now we'll be able to celebrate our _real_ birthdays!"

"Elevator's here!" Cody sing-songed, grabbing Donnie's wrist and dragging him inside the cabin. "Let's head back! Serling's probably worried sick too!"

Donatello fell silent, a goofy grin on his face, as his mind drifted to the highly advanced genetics lab he had spent all morning and a good portion of the afternoon at. He didn't even flinch when the elevator _dinged_ open at the rooftop hangar's floor and Cody dragged him out, yelling something about supper.

The two geniuses sprinted for their HoverShell and leapt inside, gearing up the engines for the relatively short, but far too long for their tastes, flight home.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

Both Leonardo and Serling were standing there waiting for them as their ship landed and they hopped out. Serling was holding a plate he was currently polishing and Leonardo stood on one leg with his arms crossed over his plastron, his eyes narrowed dangerously. Donatello cringed inwardly as he bowed his head and shuffled over to his brother, preparing himself for a lecture.

Cody followed his fellow genius's example, hurrying forward and beaming up at his temperamental, high-maintenance robot guardian. "Master Cody," the robot began, his "mouth" lighting up as he spoke, "I assume you are aware of the time, correct?"

Cody gulped and nodded slowly. He glanced over to see that Leonardo had pulled Donatello a few feet away as he delivered his lecture. The slightly smaller turtle stood staring at the metal rooftop, toeing at a slightly loose panel. Cody was jerked back to reality when a metal hand clamped down on his arm and led him toward the shack-like structure with the elevator. Cody knew resisting was useless as he glanced back once more at his friend before the robot pulled him into the elevator.

Donnie was only half-listening by the time Leonardo had finished, copying Serling and gripping his brother's arm, dragging him toward the elevator. Donatello went without argument, wondering to himself how much worse his brother might get if it turned out he really _was_ the eldest. Sensei, and even Donnie and his other two brothers, had always seen Leonardo as the eldest, although it was never explicitly stated, as well as seeing Michelangelo as the youngest. Raph liked to think that he was older than Donnie, although the smaller turtle was always quick to point out they had no way of knowing.

Until now. Donnie wondered just what the results of the testing might show. Then a thought struck him.

He decided right then and there that if it turned out Mikey was the oldest, he'd lie and fudge the test papers. Even picturing Mikey as the "big brother" was giving him a migraine.

His thoughts were interrupted when the elevator doors _dinged_ open and Leonardo, who had not released his arm as of yet, dragged him through the dark hallways in the house towards the main living area.

Mikey was sitting on the ground in the middle of the room, legs crossed and a bored expression on his face. Master Splinter was sitting in front of the television; apparently, there was a marathon of his favorite soap opera on.

Leo dragged Donnie over to Mikey and forced him down, pointing at their brother, who raised his brow ridges in a silent question. Donnie sighed as he copied Mikey's posture. "You are not to move until I say so." Leo ordered sternly, before turning on his heel and marching out the doorway.

Don sighed and let his head fall into his hands. "So, what exactly did _you_ do to deserve this punishment?"

Mikey sighed and raised his eyes to stare vacantly at his brother. "Master Splinter caught me playing my portable version of Helix 2 after he'd told me no videogames." Donnie raised his brow ridges at that. "Whaaat? Portable games _aren't_ videogames!"

Donnie rolled his eyes and scanned the room, looking for his third brother. "Where's Raph?" He asked after his thorough search yielded no results.

Mikey shrugged. "Haven't seen him since Leo dragged him out by the bandana tails a few hours ago." The brow ridges went up again. "I think it had something to do with chess."

Donnie groaned, suddenly feeling sympathy for his "eldest" brother. No wonder he was so moody. "_Another_ game? Hasn't Raph learned that he just can't beat Leo at strategy without dumb luck?"

"Hey!" Mikey protested. "I tripped while dodging one of Cody's kicks! So, technically, it's his fault!"

Donnie sighed and rubbed his chin. He watched the door for a moment, thinking to himself. "Hey, Mikey, if I go find Raph, will you cover for me?"

Mikey raised his brow ridges. "Cover for ya? Exactly how'm I suppose' ta do that, Don? It's not like we're in bed and I can shove a few pillows under the blankets."

Donnie groaned. "I don't know. Something just tells me Raph could use a little assistance." His eyes pleaded with Mikey. "I'll be right back."

Mikey shrugged, clearly depressed with no videogames to play. "Sure, whatever. But when Leo kicks yer shell because ya left, don't ask me ta bail you out. You're on your own."

Donnie grinned slyly. "I can feel the love." He affectionately rubbed the top of his brother's head before hopping to his feet and disappearing out the doorway to the rest of the home, although not without scanning the hallways for his brother first.

Satisfied that Leonardo was nowhere in sight, he set off down the hall in search of his hotheaded brother. If Raphael had said or done something to put their "warden" over the edge, who knows what the turtle may have done with him, assuming he'd done anything at all.

Donnie's thoughts were beginning to drift back to the genetics lab on their own accord when he heard mumbling and the sounds of struggling coming from a closet he had just passed by. Donatello paused with one foot in midair before backtracking to said closet, grasping the handle and flinging it open.

The sight that met him had him feeling both shocked and highly amused at the same time. Raphael was trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey while dangling from a metal hook situated into a shelf in the large walk-in closet, a washcloth shoved in his mouth apparently serving as a gag.

Donatello stared at him for a moment, his mouth twitching into a smile. His dark green brother glared at him and mumbled something through the washcloth, wriggling his arms and causing his body to bounce as if he were bungee jumping. Donatello slipped into the closet, his mouth still threatening to slip into a smile, as he approached his brother. The rope that had been used to tie him up with was strong, far too strong for Donnie to cut with scissors.

After staring at the thick rope for a few agonizing moments (to Raphael; Donatello, however, was thoroughly entertained), he peered down at his brother as he reached down and yanked the washcloth from his mouth. "Mind telling me what happened?" He asked, amusement still evident in his voice.

Raphael hacked and wagged his tongue around for a minute before blinking up at his brother. "Apparently, when Fearless says the last game, he means the last game."

Donatello raised his brow ridges at that before stepping back, folding his arms over his plastron. "I could have told you that."

Raphael rolled his eyes before wriggling his shoulders and growling. "Will ya quit grinnin' like a loony an' get ma down from here already?"

Donatello pinched the end of his beak in thought. "Tell me, Raph. How much would it mean to you if I were to get ya down?"

"Eh?"

"What's it worth to you?"

Raph blinked a few times before growling. "Brainiac, are ya tryin' ta blackmail me?"

Donnie's grin turned mischievous, sending a chill down the larger, currently helpless, turtle's spine. "And if I am?"

Raph grumbled something under his breath before sighing. "Jus' ferget it. I'll jus' wait fer Fearless to come get me. He ain't gonna leave me here ferever." _Right?_ He thought in the back of his mind.

"I dunno, Raphie," Donnie tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Leo seemed pretty peeved. Besides, who's ta say he even remembers puttin' you in here?"

Raph's eyes widened for half a second before he growled again. "Now you're jus' tryin' ta scare me."

Donnie chuckled darkly, shrugging. "If you say so. But, let me warn you. Leo kind of put me in 'time out,' so, technically, I shouldn't even be here. And I'm not comin' back if you suddenly decide to change your mind. It's now or never."

Raph sighed, clearly defeated. Then his eyes narrowed. "I got yer price." His eyes glinted dangerously.

Donnie blinked in surprise, wondering if he'd said something wrong. "Yes?"

Raph grinned evilly. "You get me down from here, and I won't tell Fearless ya were up an' about when yer weren't suppose' ta be."

Dang it! Why had he told Raph that? Donnie sighed heavily. "All right, you win. Just give me a second to find something to cut you down with."

Raph's eyes widened when he caught a glimpse of something behind his now deep-in-thought brother. "Uh, Don?"

"Not now, Raph," Donnie shushed him. "I'm trying to think."

"Donnie!" Raph hissed, staring wide-eyed at the shadow behind his brother, desperately hoping it wasn't who he thought it was.

"For pete sake's, Raph!" Donnie grumbled. "I can't think with you yammerin' at me. If I don't hurry up and get back, Leo's gonna—"

"I'm going to what?" Donnie froze at the voice, slowly turning and plastering a huge grin on his face. Now he mentally slapped himself for ignoring his brother's desperate attempts to warn him. "Uh, h-hey, Leo! What's up?"

"Have I ever told you how much I despise that question?" Leo grumbled before stepping into the room and eying his clearly terrified brother. "I find it odd to find you here when I was just coming to free Raphael."

Donnie rubbed the back of his neck nervously, wondering how many ways Leo could kill him while they were in a dark closet with the only nearby help being his still trussed up brother. "Heh, imagine that. Must have been sleep walking. I'll just go back to—"

"Hold," Leo froze his brother in place with that one word. "Don't move." Donnie flinched when he saw his brother withdraw his katana, the blade slicing against the sheath as it emerged. He squeezed his eyes shut, wondering if it would hurt . . .

A loud crash, then, "OW!" Donnie's eyes flew open and he stared down at his now fallen brother. With another expert swing of his katana, Leo slashed his brother's bindings neatly and sheathed his katana once again.

"Thanks fer the warnin'," Raph muttered darkly as he wriggled out of his bindings and scrambled to his feet, teetering dangerously. Leo grabbed his shoulders and hustled him out of the room, jerking his head at Donatello without even looking back.

_I am _so_ dead_, Donnie thought to himself as he followed his brothers down the hallway, back to the main living area.

Mikey glanced up at their approach, smirking when he saw Raph being shepherded by a clearly peeved Leo followed by a sheepish Donnie. He cast a glance at his purple clad brother, who shot him a warning look that clearly said "Not in the mood."

"Long time no see, Raphie-boy," Mikey grinned cheekily up at his hotheaded brother, who was still unsteady on his feet due to their being wrapped so tightly for so long. "Where ya been?"

"Shuddup, Mikey," Raph grumbled, pulling away from Leo and collapsing heavily to the ground beside his still grinning evilly brother.

"Whatsa matta, Raphie-boy?" Mikey continued his taunting. "Feeling a little humbled?"

Raph growled and would have tackled his annoying sibling if his feet weren't still prickling from the blood once again flowing through them. Not to mention he had a pounding headache from hanging upside-down for so long. If he wasn't a turtle, he swore he'd be beet red. As it was, his cheeks were flushed a little pink, although the color was slowly fading.

Leo turned around and eyed Donnie, who was staring at the ground with interest. "Donatello," the blue clad turtle practically growled.

Donnie visibly winced as he reluctantly met his sibling's hard gaze. "I don't suppose a simple 'I'm sorry' will cut it?"

Leo sighed and rolled his eyes, reaching up to massage his temples. "Where is your laptop?"

The question was so sudden and so unexpected that Donatello had barely processed the implications of such a question before he found himself answering, "Sitting on the desk over there."

Leonardo shot him once last death glare before trotting over to said desk and scooping up the laptop. "Uh, L-Leo?" The suddenly anxious turtle asked, his nervousness making him stutter. "Wh-What are you d-doing?"

"I am confiscating your personal computer," his brother replied coldly and emotionlessly. "Clearly, you see nothing wrong in not only missing your curfew by nearly a full hour but then disobeying a direct, and very simple, order." Donatello winced inwardly. Why had he thought Raph was worth it? "Therefore, I am keeping this until further notice." With that said, Leo disappeared out the doorway with Donatello's baby tucked under his arm, muttering something about chess and irresponsible, bleep, obnoxious, bleep, annoying, bleep little brothers!

Donnie decided to pretend he hadn't heard all of those expletives being applied to him. Leonardo wasn't usually one to use foul language, but he threw all caution to shell when he was pissed off.

Well, he supposed it could have been worse.

"Ya do realize, Donnie," a certain red clad turtle interrupted his genius brother's thoughts. "He's totally gonna kick yer shell in training tonight."

Mikey groaned. "He's gonna kick all our shells, just mostly Donnie's."

"Oh, ha ha," Donnie grumbled as he joined his brothers on the floor. "Now what?"

"Now?" The three ninjas jumped as their sensei appeared behind them, hands resting on his walking stick as he surveyed them in amusement. "We train."

All three of his sons groaned. And now the butt whooping began.

**AN: I hope everybody enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I did writing it. Again, the third chapter will be posted soon. And, in case anybody thinks Leo is majorly OOC, there is a reason for that, which will be revealed in the next chapter. Until next update, thank you for reading! And, of course, the more reviews I get, the faster I'll update! And, constructive criticism is much appreciated, although please do be nice. We authors do have our self-esteems.**


	3. Mikey, the Trypanophobiac

10

**AN: Wow, I'm amazed at how many people are reading this! Although, in proportion to that, there aren't many reviewing, that's okay. Last chapter, I said I would upload this after I finished Chapter 5. And, I do keep my promises. But, I'm sure that all of you Leo fans want to know why I'm torturing him. I do give a reason, but, also, for some reason, I'm having a little trouble writing him, and would love any pointers you Leo fans have! He's my fave turtle too, and I really want to do him justice. Anyway, please enjoy the third chapter!**

**Mikey, the Trypanophobiac**

"Excellent, Leonardo!" Splinter praised, clicking his claws together and bowing to the only turtle still standing.

Leonardo returned the gesture, turning and smirking down at his brothers when their father was not looking. His brothers could only groan, knowing they were about to get a lecture. "Michelangelo, a ninja must always anticipate unorthodox attacks." Mikey groaned, his voice still high from the blow his brother had given him. "Raphael, your coordination was off." Raphael grumbled, rubbing his still tingling feet. "And, Donatello, you weren't even paying attention half the time!" Donatello groaned, cursing the fact that he had lapsed into daydreams whilst his brother was focusing his attacks on Raphael.

"Leonardo is correct, my sons," Splinter stood beside said turtle, eying his sons with disappointment in his eyes. "Clearly, you three were not 'on top of your game' as they say," the four turtles groaned inwardly. "I suggest the three of you consider extra training sessions, particularly you, Michelangelo."

"Whaaat?" Said turtle protested, holding his arms in a Y. Thankfully, his voice had returned to its normal pitch. "Leo kicked me in the 'forbidden 'area'! I thought we weren't allowed to attack there!"

Splinter did raise his furry eyebrows at the blue clad turtle at that. "I do admit, Leonardo, that perhaps that particular attack was somewhat inappropriate."

"_Somewhat?!_" Mikey exclaimed. "I'm still sore!"

"Michelangelo, enough!" Splinter silenced him and his other two groaning sons. "Training is over for now. You are dismissed!"

Leonardo sheathed his katanas and bowed once more to his sensei, throwing one last reproachful look at his brothers before disappearing out the door.

Donnie, Mikey, and Raph staggered to their feet, all three groaning perhaps a little dramatically. "Thanks a lot, Don." Raph grumbled as he followed his brothers out of the dojo. "If ya had jus' stayed put, Fearless wouldn'ta been so pissed and _I_ wouldn' be so _sore_!"

"All right then, Raphael," Donnie snapped back. "Next time, I'll just leave you dangling upside-down in the closet for all of eternity."

Mikey perked up at that. "What now?"

"Nuttin,' shell-fer-brains!" Raphael growled, struggling to catch up to his brothers. "Wait fer ma! Ma feet are still tinglin'!"

Mikey glanced at his purple clad brother, brow ridges raised and a question in his mischievous eyes. "Whadaya think, bro? Should we wait for the hothead to catch up, or continue on our merry way?"

Donnie's eyes twinkled, joining in the fun. "I dunno, Raphie! It's so much quieter with only the two of us up here!"

"Shuddup, brainiac!" The enraged behemoth behind them bellowed. The two smaller turtles chortled before speeding up, easily outdistancing their red clad brother, who was grumbling under his breath about idiot brothers.

Donnie and Mikey were still laughing when they entered the main living area. Leo, who was sitting in front of the wall of windows meditating, scrunched his brow in annoyance and shushed them before returning to the astral plane.

Mikey watched his brother in disgusted curiosity. "Donnie, you're smart. Do you know how Leo can sit meditatin' fer hours without his brain turning to mush?"

"If only I knew," Donnie sighed, flopping down on the floor and folding his arms. Technically, Leo hadn't said he could get up yet, practice clearly being an exception, and he had already irritated the blue clad turtle enough without pushing it. Besides, it wasn't as if he had anything better to do.

Then he remembered that he most certainly _did_ have something better to do! "I'm such a bonehead!" Donnie bellowed, bolting to his feet like a rabbit on steroids just as Mikey was sitting down to join him. The orange clad ninja watched his brother in silent fascination, brow ridges raised, as he barreled past Raphael, who had just reached the doorway to the main living area.

Raphael stared after his brother in shock for a moment before limping inside and scanning the room. Catching sight of Mikey, who hadn't moved due to the shock, he limped over and flopped down beside him, copying his posture. "What's wrong with Donnie-boy?" He asked, only half-interested, as he returned to massaging his sore feet.

Mikey shrugged. "Apparently, he just remembered something he was suppose' ta do."

"Wonderful," Raph grumbled. "Whadaya wanna bet it's sumthin' ta do with this whole 'biological testing ta figure out our real ages' thing?"

Mikey blinked. "That was a lot of words to describe one thing."

"Ah, shuddup, shell-fer-brains," Raph growled, reaching over to whack his orange clad brother upside the head.

"Whaaat?" Mikey complained a little too loudly.

"WILL YOU TWO BE QUIET?!" They both jumped, swinging around to see an enraged Leonardo glaring at them from his place beside the wall of windows. They had quite forgotten he was even there.

"Uh, sorry, bro," Raph hurried to appease his brother. Seriously, had he woken up on the wrong side of the bed or something? He'd been grouchy all day. "We'll try ta keep it down, 'kay?"

Leonardo grumbled under his breath before returning to his meditation, taking deep breaths to calm his suddenly racing heart. Although clearly the side of the bed you get up on does not usually effect your behavior for the rest of the day, he hadn't gotten much sleep last night due to a certain orange clad ninja who didn't like sleeping by himself in strange places and had kept him awake the entire night with his snoring. Although the four ninja turtle brothers had been in the future for some time now, certain things were still odd for them, and the sleeping arrangements was one of them.

Back in their lair in the past, their bedrooms had been all relatively near each others'. However, in the future, one could shout down the hall from his bedroom door and his brothers may or may not even hear it. Thus, the orange clad, and often thought of as the youngest, ninja's difficulty in sleeping.

Normally, Leonardo blatantly refused to let his brother sleep in his room, but he'd been caught at a moment of weakness and Mikey's puppy dog eyes had been particularly tear-jerking last night.

And, on top of that, he'd had a pulsating migraine for the past few days that he was just barely keeping contained. For the most part, he had been able to ignore it, but, after a full night with no sleep and listening to Mikey's snores, he was finding it—how do you say it?—more _difficult_ to control himself. Having to deal with three somewhat unruly "little" brothers and just the stress that comes with being Leo, after all, is no easy job.

So, if he was a little snappy, grouchy, and overall violent, he decided that was okay. Everybody was allowed to have an off day once and awhile.

Just then, Donatello reappeared in the doorway, breathless and eyes shining as he clutched a white first aid kit in his arms. Leo had only furrowed his brow in annoyance, the only sign he even knew his brother had entered, but Mikey and Raph were staring at their brother in confusion.

"Uh, Don?" Mikey attempted. "Are you okay?"

"Fabulous!" Donnie exclaimed, startling both his red and orange clad brothers and earning a growl from the blue clad. "I almost forgot that I have to get blood samples for the DNA testing!"

"Blood samples?" Mikey asked, blinking stupidly for a minute. "As in, with a needle? A needle going through my skin? That kind of blood sample?"

Leo had given up on his meditating and risen to join his suddenly hyperactive purple clad brother. Donnie grabbed his brother's arm and dragged him over to their other two brothers, beginning to excitedly tell Leonardo just how _incredible _ and _fantastic_ it was going to be when—

"I'M NOT LETTING YOU POKE ME WITH A NEEDLE!" Mikey exclaimed suddenly, bolting from his place on the floor and backflipping over the couch. "I have rights!"

Raph got to his feet and peered over the back of the couch at his trembling brother. "Ah, come on, Mike. Needles ain't so bad. Here, I'll even go first."

Mikey poked his head over the back of the couch as Raph stepped forward and held out his arm to Donnie. The genius clicked the first aid kit open and took out an empty syringe, wiping it with a sterile cloth before swiping a small area on his brother's forearm. "This'll sting a little."

"I _have_ been poked with a needle before, bro," Raph snapped as Donnie grabbed his arm and poked the needle through the skin, pressing down on the top to draw the blood out. Due to their thick reptilian skin, he had to apply more force than would be needed on a human.

Mikey watched in silent fascination from behind the couch, not noticing when Leo sneaked behind him after a pointed look from Raph.

"There, all done," Donnie said, pulling a test tube and stopper from the first aid kit and emptying the contents of the syringe into it before stopping it. "Your turn, Mikey."

"Uhhh, no way, dude!" Mikey began, sitting up and holding up his hands as if to ward them off. "I'm not going anywhere near—HEY!"

Leonardo had jumped him from behind, pinning him to the couch with his weight. "Just hold still, Mikey. This won't hurt a bit."

"Yes, it will!" Mikey protested, struggling beneath his larger brother. "GEROFF ME!"

"Leo, can you sit him up so I can draw the blood?" Donnie asked as if this were all completely normal, rounding the couch and sitting beside his brothers.

Leo grimaced. "I'll try." He slid off of his brother but kept him pressed firmly into the couch. "Can't you just do it this way?" He pointed at his brother's arm that was hanging off the side of the couch. "I'll just sit on his shell and you grab his arm. Raph can—"

"NO!" Mikey managed to yank his arm up and tuck it under his plastron. "Why are you being so cruel to me?!"

"Mikey, for the love of—STOP FIDGETING!" Raph bellowed, surging over the couch and moving to help Leo hold his brother down, although he swayed slightly. He paused when he noticed both Leo and Donnie staring at him. "Wha'?"

Donnie's stare was particularly penetrating. "How do you know that word?"

"What? Fidgeting?" Donnie nodded. "What, I'm not allowed to have a large vocabulary?"

"No," Leo interrupted before his genius brother could say something very un-genius-y. "It's just that you don't have much of a vocabulary."

"Ha ha!" Mikey mocked, although his words were muffled due to his face being pressed into the couch. "Raphie-boy got pwned!"

"That's it!" Raph made to jump his brother, but Leo held him off. "Leo, lemme at 'im!"

"_After_ Donnie gets the sample," Leo replied. "Donnie?"

"Just sit him up," Donnie ordered.

"Why can't you just use his leg?" Raph demanded.

"EEP!" Came from the couch cushions.

"The muscle is too thick," Donnie explained, prepping a new syringe. "I'd have to go pretty deep to reach a blood vessel, and that would cause him more pain than necessary."

"His neck?"

"Please tell me you are kidding, Raphael," Leo deadpanned. "Mikey, if you sit up and let Donnie take a sample like a good boy, I'll let you up and even keep Raph from pummeling you."

"Hey!"

"I'd rather be pummeled than have a needle stuck in me!" Was Mikey's reply. At least, that's what they thought he said. It was hard to tell through the couch cushions.

Leo sighed. "Then I guess we do this the hard way." Without warning, he stood up and scooped the smaller turtle into his arms.

"HEY!" Mikey cried, flailing his arms and struggling. "Whadaya doin'?! PUT ME DOWN! This is totally unethical!"

"Did you guys steal my dictionary or something?" Donnie demanded as both he and Raph moved forward. Raph grabbed the arm not pinned to Leo's plastron and kept Mikey's legs at bay. Donnie calmly stepped forward, swiped a spot on the arm Raph held out to him, and stuck the needle in.

"YAAAAHHHHHHH!" All while Michelangelo was yelling bloody murder. "I HATE YOU GUYS! YOU'RE THE WORST BROTHERS EVER! LEONARDO, PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT! RAPHAEL, LET GO OF MY ARM! AND, GET THAT NEEDLE OUT OF ME, DONATELLO! SENSEI!"

"Done!" Donnie cried in triumph as he pulled the needle from his brother's arm. "You can put him down now, Leo."

"SENSEI!"

"Shuddup, shell-fer brains!" Raph snarled, smacking his brother upside the head. "Sensei's on the roof tending his garden."

"HE CAN STILL HEAR ME! SENSEI!"

"Michelangelo!" Leo snarled through his teeth, tightening his hold on his still struggling brother. "You know how sensei gets when he's gardening. It doesn't matter if he hears you. He'll know it's nothing serious and ignore you."

Mikey went limp at that. "Leo, have I ever told you that you're, like, the best big brother ever?"

Leo sighed as he walked the few feet to the couch and dropped his brother on it. "You don't know that I'm your big brother, Mikey."

"We will after this test!" Donnie exclaimed, his eyes shiny. "Your turn, Leo!"

"All that jus' fer Mikey," Raph shook his head. "Whada waste of time."

Mikey made a face and stuck his tongue out at Raph while Leo was calmly letting Donnie draw a sample of his blood in the background. Raph snarled and leapt on his brother, suddenly remembering he was going to pound him.

"Here, Leo," Donnie handed his brother a fourth syringe. "You know how to do this, right?" He asked as he held his arm out to his brother.

Leo laughed. "Of course, Donnie. We all know basic first aid." The two calm turtles seemed to be completely oblivious to the sounds of their obnoxiously loud brothers in the background while Leo swiped his brother's arm and slipped the needle in.

Donnie flinched and Leo put his other hand on his arm to reassure him. "I'm fine. I'm not exactly a fan of needles either," Donnie explained quickly, knowing how concerned his brother could get.

Leo rolled his eyes at that. "Compared to Mikey, the family trypanophobiac, you're practically fearless."

Donnie laughed. "I thought that was your adjective." Leo smirked. Donnie laughed louder until he realized something. "Okay, seriously, where did you guys put it?"

Leo looked up at him and laughed. "Let's just say I have this odd habit of looking up random phobias. As far as I know, your dictionary's safe and sound."

Donnie frowned. "So, what's trypa—trypno—what did you say?"

"Trypanophobia," Leo supplied. "It means a fear of needles." **AN: I didn't make this up! That really is what it's called! And, for those of you who think Donnie should know this word, not even geniuses know everything.**

Donnie blinked for a moment before he laughed. "Yeah, that's Mikey all right."

"OWWW!" Speak of the devil. "LLLEEEOOOO! MAKE RAPH STOP PUNCHING ME!"

"FEARLESS CAN'T HELP YA, LAME BRAIN! YER ALL MINE!" Raph smiled and spoke in a normal voice. "'Sides, he gave me permission."

"Hey, Leo?" Donnie asked, casting a weary gaze at his two brothers who seemed to only be getting louder.

"Yeah?"

"Am I allowed to move if I go train?"

Leo laughed. "You up for a spar?"

Donnie gave his brothers one last glance. "Anything to get away from them for awhile." He packed up his first aid kit and followed his brother out the doorway.

"SERLING!"

"OH, NOW YER JUS' GETTIN' DESPARATE!"

**AN: And that concludes the third chapter! I will not be posting the fourth until I have completed chapter 6, though. This may take a few days. And, yes, now you know why Leo's been so grouchy and easily provoked! Honestly, I've never had a migraine, but my mother used to get them for days on end, and she was absolutely miserable. And, yes, this will be the last chapter where he's like that! He gets a good night sleep after this or something, I don't know. Anyway, for any who have been wondering if I will do anything with the Dark Turtles, the next couple of chapters will focus mainly on them. I would love your input on their personalities and whatnot! With so few episodes focused on them, I almost had to invent personalities for them, except for Dark Leo, of course. Anyway, thanks for reading, and do leave a review. I really do care what you think.**


	4. And Another Baddy!

11

**AN: Although I only have half of Chapter 6 done, I decided to post this anyway. This is the chapter introducing my version of the Dark Turtles! As I said in my last author's note, I pretty much had to invent personalities for them. I wanted them to be different enough from the original turtles so that they're their own persons, but alike enough that you can tell they're their clones. Anyway, I forgot to do this in the last chapter, but I don't own the TMNT, the Dark Turtles, or Darius Dunn. However, I do own Alexa Rodriguez, my main OC.**

** I thought I'd give a run-down on the Dark Turtles personalities in this story:**

** Dark Leo is very intense and bossy, extremely impatient, and somewhat sadistic. Although he remembers his time with the original turtles somewhat fondly, he still holds a deep hatred for them, particularly Leo. However, he has become very protective of his brothers, especially since Darius Dunn pretty much elected him their mother.**

** Dark Don is conceited and extremely sadistic. He likes dissecting things, particularly alive things, and has a tendency to sting people with his barbed tail. Yes, I realize he doesn't have one in the series. Call it creative license. Anyway, he's also very curious and absolutely **_**hates**_** being wrong.**

** Dark Raph is easily frustrated and incredibly stupid. He's also gullible and easily duped by his brothers, particularly Dark Don. He's very sensitive, particularly about his appearance, and he doesn't take well to criticism.**

** Dark Mike is very much like the Mikey we all know and love, but he's much more sadistic and creepy. He's nicknamed his brothers "Red Rover," "Blue Bozo," and "Purple People Eater." He's also extremely childish.**

** The three younger Dark Turtles act very childish, because I realized they all are less than a year old. They don't have life experiences like we do to tell them right from wrong. Dark Leo's the most mature only because he was forced to be.**

** Anyway, this is a really long author's note, but I wanted to tell you that. Enjoy Chapter 4!**

**And Another Baddy!**

"Red Rover!" Dark Mike called out after the pointer on the handmade Twister board he was holding stopped spinning.

"I don't like that name," Dark Raph protested as he struggled to slip his clawed feet along under Dark Leo onto an available "Red Rover" spot.

Yes, mother of all horrors, the Dark Turtles were playing their own twisted version of Twister. Darius Dunn had, very irritatingly, told them to go occupy themselves after Dark Don had swatted Dark Mike into him with his tail. Their "game floor" had been carved directly into the rock floor by an overly excited Dark Mike and the "board," also made by Dark Mike, had been made with cardboard and a box of crayons.

"This game is pointless!" Dark Don hissed through his teeth even as he was twisting his body in a position it should never be twisted in to plant his foot on a "Red Rover" spot.

"You need the exercise," Dark Leo snarled back. Currently, he was squished in-between Dark Don and Dark Raph, his feet spread the width of the board and one hand reaching under Dark Raph and the other planted on the other side of said brother. Dark Raph was stomach-up with one leg slid under Dark Leo and the other hooked over Dark Don's leg to keep his balance. One of his hands was placed at an awkward angle beneath his body while the other was hooked around one of Dark Leo's arms. Dark Don was practically resting on top of Dark Leo, stomach-down, with both hands underneath and one foot slid under Dark Raph and the other barely touching a spot near the edge of the board.

Basically, it was an extremely comical sight, and Dark Mike was rather enjoying himself. His long tongue whipped out as he reached up and picked his nose with it before once again spinning the pointer. "Purple People Eater!"

"Who came up with these names?" Dark Don gasped, realizing he couldn't even _see_ a "Purple People Eater" from his position.

"Who do you _think_?" Dark Leo snarled as he located a "Purple People Eater" and slid one of his feet underneath Dark Raph to claim it.

Dark Raph, despite his large build, was having difficulty holding his two brothers up. "Hea—vy."

"I resent that!" Dark Don protested, his tail whipping out and catching Dark Raph on the edge of his shell. "I only weigh three hundred and fifty-four pounds!"

"QUIET!" Dark Leo snarled. "Purple People Eater, haven't you found a spot yet?"

"Uh," Dark Don began. "I'm working on it!" In his desperate search, he lost his balance and his plastron collided painfully with Dark Leo's shell. Unfortunately, the thicker mutant stayed upright while the other mutant on top of him groaned and rolled off.

"Purple People Eater's out!" Dark Mike sing-songed, laughing hysterically as he once again spun the dial. "Orange Orangutan!"

Dark Raph struggled to look at the board beneath him and, in doing so, lost his balance and fell crashing to the ground, bringing Dark Leo with him.

"Ah, Red Rover, Blue Bozo!" Dark Mike whined. "I was hoping for a little more competition!"

"QUIET, YOU INCESSANTLY NOISY MUTANTS!" Darius Dunn suddenly bellowed from his place over at the control console. "Honestly, how old are you four, five?"

"Technically, we aren't even a year," Dark Don supplied as he scrambled to his feet, hissing at the sharp pain in his plastron.

"Master," Dark Leo began. "When is that woman getting here?"

Darius Dunn snarled. "I do not know, Leonardo!" He snarled. "The agency that I called promised that she would be here by now! 'Best Service in the Galaxy,' my foot!" He was interrupted by light footsteps and the swishing of a cape.

The Dark Turtles immediately fell into fighting stances, except Dark Mike who was too intrigued with his board to notice the new presence.

"What interesting minions you have, Mr. Dunn," the syrupy sweet, and clearly dangerous, voice of the female assassin purred from the darkness as she stepped forward. She was dressed in an all-body, curve-fitting purple and black body suit, knee-high leather black boots with stiletto heels, and a billowing purple cape complete with a hood, which was currently covering her head.

"Finally!" Darius Dunn exclaimed after he had recovered from the initial shock. "You are late, miss!"

The woman laughed, a sound that grated on the Dark Turtles' hypersensitive ears. He laugh sounded similar to a hyena/ donkey hybrid. Darius Dunn looked completely stunned at the very unprofessional laugh before clearing his throat and ceasing the horrifying racket. "Am I to assume you are Alexa Rodriguez, then?"

The woman sneered. "I go by Black Panther." She nodded her head at the still battle ready Dark Turtles. (Dark Mike had since been stung by Dark Don's tail and had joined the fight, although he still clutched the precious Twister board to his plastron.) "What's the deal with the freaky, multicolored giant turtle things?"

Darius Dunn cast a glance at the turtles and took notice of their fighting stances. "Oh, for heaven's sake, relax. Honestly, you four are so jumpy." All of the turtles but Dark Leo relaxed, if only because they wanted steak again tonight.

Darius Dunn narrowed his eyes, but couldn't help backing down at the steely, truly terrifying glare the blue turtle sent him. As much as he hated to admit it, the turtle clones gave him the creeps, particularly the blue one.

"Mr. Dunn?" Black Panther asked, pulling the grotesquely obese man in the octorobot suit out of his fear-induced stupor.

"Huh, wha"?" He started. "Ah, yes, the turtles. As you said before, they are my minions," he cast a withering glare at the purple one when he scoffed. "They are clones that have been marinated in a certain dark substance that I am choosing not to reveal to you."

"Clones?" Black Panther blinked her emerald green eyes, turning on the suddenly nervous turtles. "What, did you mix human DNA with that of a turtle's in an effort to create a super army or something?"

"No," Dark Leo answered since Darius Dunn looked completely taken off guard. "It is none of your business who our 'originals' are. We are _entitled_ to our privacy."

The woman blinked. "Whatever, blue dude."

The turtle growled and took a menacing step forward, reaching for one of his enormous two-pronged swords. "My name is Leonardo."

"Yes," Darius Dunn interrupted the steadily intensifying confrontation. "In answer to your, ah, question, no, they are not a mix of human and turtle DNA. Their 'originals' are, were, normal turtles who had been mutated with—uh, actually, I have no idea what they were mutated with." He shrugged.

The woman cocked her head and eyed the turtles with fascination. "Ah, but I suppose I did not come here to discuss your, uh," her gaze intensified and Dark Leo growled again, "odd choice of minions." She turned her attention from the agitated mutant to Darius Dunn. "I came because you sent for an assassin. Now, tell me. Who is it that you wish to have eliminated?"

Darius Dunn smiled slyly. "You are aware of O'Neil Tech, correct?"

"Indeed, I am," Black Panther replied. "And?"

"And I am sure you are aware I am, er, _was_, the CEO."

Black Panther shrugged. "I don't delve much into big business and politics. What's your point, old man?"

Darius Dunn just fought the urge to raise his voice at her. After all, she was a lethal assassin, and he knew the Dark Turtles would make no move to assist him if she attacked. If only he could find minions that were actually _loyal_ to him. "My _point_ is, Ms. Rodriguez, that if an untimely accident were to—how shall I put it?—_befall_ on the owner of O'Neil Tech, I might be entitled to a possible callback."

Black Panther cocked her head. "And who, may I ask, is the _owner_?"

That is where Darius Dunn snarled evilly. "His name is Cody Jones. He is fourteen years old and lives at the old O'Neil Tech building. He is the great grandson of the founders, Casey Jones and April O'Neil Jones."

Black Panther smiled thoughtfully. "And, you want me to take him out?"

Darius Dunn nodded. "Yes," he suddenly turned and pointed at the turtles with a look of "no negotiation allowed" in his eyes. "And they will accompany you."

That made the woman frown. "May I ask _why_?"

Darius Dunn sighed. "Unfortunately, the boy has very, _very_ skilled bodyguards who guard him nearly twenty four-seven. I can provide you with a ship. They will be no trouble as long as they are kept fed. Trust me, if something happens, you will be glad to have them."

Black Panther scowled in disgust and glared curiously at the mutants. "I expect _double_ pay for this."

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

Alexa Rodriguez, better known as Black Panther, was _not_ happy. Why wasn't she happy you may ask? Because she, the most ruthless and most feared assassin on the face of the planet, she who had pulled off over one hundred successful jobs without once being spotted, had been given a lowly, degrading task that she considered beneath her.

She was _baby-sitting_ four giant, monstrous turtles that would have loved to rip out her throat and devour her (at least, she assumed they were carnivorous) if they were not controlled by the gauntlet on her wrist. The gauntlet that might short circuit or simply _fall off_. One highly intricate piece of technology standing between her and four _freaking giant monster turtles_!

Her attempt at giving herself a pep talk was utterly failing, probably due to the fact that said _freaking giant monster turtles_ were standing mere yards behind her in the back of the large main deck of the cruiser her newest client had given her. She had specifically ordered them not to move unless she gave the word. They appeared to be playing some kind of game, three sitting cross-legged in a circle on the floor while the smallest one sat on a chair watching them. She couldn't even _imagine_ what kind of hideously twisted game they might be playing.

"Go fish," Dark Raph, or "Red Rover" if you happen to be Dark Mike, growled at Dark Don.

"No way!" The purple mutant turtle protested. "You so too have a three!"

"Uh," the red mutant turtle stared at his cards again. "Which one is the three again?"

"Uh!" Dark Don dropped his cards to the floor of the ship in a rage, although he was careful that they were facing down, and threw his hands up into the air in defeat. "I do not know _why_ I play with you _imbeciles_!"

"Got any aces?" Dark Mike asked, causing the purple turtle to blink and stare up at him.

Dark Don stared for another moment before picking his cards back up and fishing out the ace of spades. He handed it to Dark Mike almost robotically. "Are you sure you don't have x-ray vision?"

"Dude!" Dark Mike had picked up the word "dude" after hearing his non-dark counterpart use it quite frequently. "I don't even know what that is!"

"It means you can see through stuff," Dark Leo snarled in answer, his gruff voice interrupting Dark Don's second attempt at a temper tantrum. "Got any sevens?" He directed his question at Dark Mike, who had to take time shuffling through his vast number of cards.

"Isn't it my turn?" Dark Raph asked, scratching his head in confusion. "Have I even _gone_ yet?"

"No and yes!" Dark Don snapped, staring intently at his cards, peering up over the tops to glare suspiciously at his competition as his barbed tail snapped violently behind him.

"Oh," Dark Raph muttered, weeding through his cards.

Dark Mike had finally finished his search and perked up triumphantly, reaching down to stroke his tail with his claws. "Go fish!"

Dark Leo grumbled under his breath as he plucked the top card off the pile of the "fish tank" as Dark Mike had insisted on calling it. "You turn, Mike."

"Wait!" Dark Raph scratched his head in confusion (he did that a lot), staring at his cards as if they held the answers he was seeking. "Shouldn't it be my turn?"

"No!" Dark Don answered.

"Oh," Dark Raph grumbled.

"Got any octopuses?" Dark Mike asked Dark Raph, who, in turn, only looked _more_ confused.

Except, both Dark Don and Dark Leo were also wrinkling their brows in confusion. "Octopuses?" Dark Don demanded. "There're no _octopuses_ in Go Fish!"

"Well, I have a card with an octopus on it!" Dark Mike protested, holding up the offending card for all to see, waving it around as if that would prove his point.

"It's from a different card game," Dark Leo growled, reaching out and yanking Dark Don back down when he made as if to tackle the smallest dark turtle. "Just pick somethin' else!"

Dark Mike huffed, his long tongue poking out, hanging about six inches out of his mouth, as he intently studied his cards. "Fine! Give me a piranha then!"

"Let me see those!" Dark Don was up in a flash and snatching the cards out of Dark Mike's hands before he could react. "He has five cards with marine animals on them! Where did you get these cards anyway?"

Dark Mike shrugged, his face twisting up as if he were offended. "I found them in a dumpster!"

"This is a stupid game anyway!" Dark Leo snarled, throwing down his cards.

"Is it my turn yet?" Dark Raph raised his hand uncertainly, noticing for the first time that about half his hand was made up of marine animals as well.

"NO!" Dark Don snarled back, whipping his tail around to knock the cards out of Dark Raph's hands and catching him with the barb in the process.

"OWIE!" Dark Raph cried, immediately sticking the sore hand into his cavernous mouth, whimpering. "Leo, Donnie stuck me!"

Dark Leo sighed, letting his head fall into his hands. Ever since he had returned from his time in their originals' custody and had shared the meat with his brothers, they had begun looking to him as a parental figure who could solve all their problems. Granted, besides perhaps Dark Don, he was the only one with any grain of sense and had thus been elected as the other three's main caretaker by Darius Dunn, who was just simply too lazy to do it.

"You're such a baby!" Dark Don snarled. "An _ugly_ baby!"

"I not ugly!" Dark Raph wailed, large crocodile tears spilling down his cheeks. "The orange turtle said I's prettier than ma original!"

"ENOUGH!" Dark Leo bellowed, startling his three brothers and their pilot, who jumped and whirled around, her heart thumping wildly. "We have a job to do! No more playing these idiotic childish games!"

Dark Don blinked from where he was on top of Dark Mike with his hands around his throat and his barbed tail poised as a lethal weapon. "But, it's just _boring_ sittin' 'n doin' nothin'!"

Dark Leo snarled once more before sighing and falling silent. "You will no longer be bored when we are destroying our originals!"

Dark Don, Dark Mike, and Dark Raph all smiled evilly at that, grinning at each other, Dark Don's tail swishing dangerously close to Dark Raph's head.

"We _destroy_ them this time, Fearless Leader?" Dark Raph asked excitedly, batting at Dark Don's tail and ignoring the sting it gave him.

Dark Leo smiled darkly (again, no pun is intended). "That, and," he leaned forward and motioned for his brothers to lean closer, which they promptly did, "we will escape the idiot who has kept us like animals and finally be _free_ to wreak havoc on this city as we _please_!"

Dark Don, Dark Raph, and Dark Mike giggled, although they were about the most sinister, terrifying giggles ever uttered. Dark Leo joined with his own dark chuckle, glancing back over his shoulder at their pilot, whose stiffened back and refusal to acknowledge his gaze told him what he wanted to know.

She was afraid. Alexa had to give herself another mental pep talk as she landed the cruiser in a dark alley. "Stay here!" She hissed with more authority than she was currently feeling. "I am going to scope out the grounds!"

Dark Don blinked from his place still on top of Dark Mike, his knee digging into his plastron. "In broad daylight?"

"JUST STAY HERE!" She ordered, unbuckling herself and bolting for the exit as fast as her legs could carry her.

Darius Dunn would die a slow and painful death for subjecting her to this torture!

**AN: And that's a wrap for Chapter 4! I want to be at least halfway done with Chapter 7 before I post Chapter 5, so my next update may not be for a few days. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I do apologize for the long author's note at the beginning, but I thought you all might want to know my take on the Dark Turtles. Anyway, thank you for reading and don't forget to leave a review! They're like my paycheck.**


	5. A Family Reunion Sorta

13

**AN: All right, time for some bad news. I'm starting to lose interest in this story. It's just seems to be dragging out and there're so many other things I'd rather do with my time. I'm going to say it right now. I Am Not Dropping This Story. I will finish it, no matter how long it takes. It just may take a lot longer than I originally thought it would. I need to know that there are people out there enjoying this. I can see how many are reading it, which does encourage me. Reviews motivate me and make me want to write faster. I've already had this chapter written, I just like being ahead by a few chapters before posting. Basically, it's not easy posting stories on this site, as most of you know, and I just like to know that it's appreciated. Anyway, I'm not going to say any more or else I'll start to annoy people.**

** Oh, and I don't own the turtles or any other TMNT associated characters in this story, but, again, I do own Alexa Rodriquez. Just in case anybody's wondering, I honestly don't care if you want to use her in another fic. I would like to be credited though. Just sayin'.**

**A Family Reunion—Sorta**

Alexa found out the hard way just how difficult it was to access the old O'Neil Tech building. She couldn't even make it past the front lawn, which, oddly enough, was laced with an underground mine field. If she made one wrong move, she would be blasted to pieces. She had just thought to scan for their ionic energy signals with a small device she had for just such occasions, and had nearly missed them. She couldn't _believe_ she had been so reckless! She had been so intent on getting away from the _things_ in her borrowed cruiser, that she hadn't thought!

She made her way back to said cruiser, muttering profanity under her breath. The jog took her a few minutes, but she finally reached the alley where she had parked the cruiser. For a moment, she was terrified the mutants had somehow hotwired the ship and taken off without her, before she remembered she had cloaked it before leaving. Mentally slapping herself, she pulled the remote from her belt and clicked the button.

The cruiser fazed into the visible spectrum once more and she leapt onto the roof, twisting the hatch open and falling down inside, pulling the hatch closed behind her. Not surprisingly, she was met at the bottom by four very unruly, very _bored_ mutant turtle thingies.

Well, _met_ isn't exactly the right word. The drop was more than she had anticipated, and she ended up in the arms of one of them. To her horror, she realized it was the creepy blue one with the spikes jutting out of his shoulders. "You should look before you leap," he chastised, sounding like some Buddhist monk who had rotted away in a monastery most of his life.

"I'll remember that next time I jump into a dark cruiser," she snapped. "Now, put me down!" When the mutant didn't immediately respond, her hand went to the gauntlet attached to her wrist and he instantaneously complied. In fact, he complied so fast that it took her a moment to even register she now had two feet planted firmly on the floor of the cruiser.

"Right then," she announced with more confidence than she felt. "New plan." She had to pause to _think_ of a new plan. The one that came to mind made her groan inwardly, but she knew it would require very specialized equipment to be able to even reach the building her target was located at.

"Which is?" Her melancholy thoughts were interrupted by the purple one. She might have been less intimidated if they weren't so dang _huge_! The yellow one (she wasn't sure why Dunn had called him "orange" when he was clearly yellow), the smallest of them, wasn't much taller than she, but he was thicker with wickedly sharp claws, a disgustingly long tongue, and a long, thick tail wagging behind. The red one was the thickest with an enormous armored plate that passed for a shell on his back, one enormous claw on both of his hands, and a large cavernous mouth with needle-like teeth. Honestly, he kind of looked like a giant, mutant crab. The purple one was much slimmer with long body armor covering his front and large spikes jutting from his shoulders. He had a long whip-like tail with a barb on the end which she strongly suspected contained venom. The blue one was the tallest of the four with enormous arms and shoulders and smaller spikes jutting out of his shoulders. He too had a tail, although it was shorter than yellow's and purple's. She assumed red had a tail too, but she hadn't looked that closely.

Basically, they were like creatures out of a late night horror movie, and, frankly, were giving her the creeps. Although aliens mingled freely among the humans on earth, she rarely interacted with them and few were as grotesque and huge as these four turtle _things_ were. She wasn't even sure they could be classified as turtles.

She would hate to meet the creatures they had been cloned from. She already felt like she was living a nightmare.

It took her a moment to realize the four mutants were staring at her, clearly waiting for an answer to purple's question. She reddened at the sudden unwanted attention and was thankful her hood hid her face, although one could see the gleam of her emerald green eyes if he looked at the right angle. "I have a, friend." She hesitated at the last word, but decided to go with it. "I need some very specialized equipment to make it past the fortress's defenses, and he should be able to provide me with them."

Blue cocked his head and narrowed his lime green eyes, an action which made Alexa's blood run cold. "Where?" He spoke the question with such malice and disdain that she nearly lost it right then.

Then she mentally slapped herself again, straightened herself to her full height, which put her right about at the start of blue's enormous pectorals, and glared up at him. "Why tell you when I can show you?" She glanced up at the hatch and wondered what fool had designed this thing before she remembered there was a side door.

"What are you waiting for?" She snarled in what she hoped was a menacing way as she stomped over to the side door, which was just large enough to let red through, yanked it open, and hopped out.

The four mutants glanced at each other, three looking to the fourth as if asking permission. The fourth stared after the odd human for a moment before nodding, signing to purple the first step of the plan he was already formulating in his highly strategic mind, courtesy of his original.

The other two joined in the dark chuckling after purple communicated to them without words what blue's first step of the plan was. Purple nodded to blue and the other mutant returned the nod before following the strange human out of the cruiser, the other three following.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

"What was this place called again?" Leo asked his brother as he followed him down the dark alley.

"Sam's," the red clad ninja replied. "Came down here once after trainin' a few days ago an' really hit it off wit' the owner. Told 'im I had bros an' he said to bring ya down any time."

"How did I let you talk me into this?" Leo lamented as he eyed the shadows warily.

"Relax, Leo," Raph reprimanded. "Those Phantom goons are long gone. We kicked their shells, 'member? Their leader's locked up fer good this time. What else is there to worry about?"

"This may be 2105, Raphael, but it's still New York. No Phantoms doesn't mean criminals aren't patrolling the streets. I'm just being cautious."

"Yer always bein' 'cautious'," Raph complained. "Lighten up, bro! Live a little! Jus' le—mmpphh!" Raph's shout of surprise was muffled by the hand over his mouth as he was tackled and dragged into the shadows of the alley. It took him a moment to realize it was his brother who had "attacked" him. When he tried to ask what the heck Leo thought he was doing, the other ninja shushed him and pointed back down the way they had come where four distinct, unfortunately familiar, voices were coming from.

"Can we get hot dogs? I like hot dogs!"

"No."

"But, _why_ couldn't I take her home and dissect her? It's not as if the humans wouldn't do that to _us_."

"No!"

"How come I never got my turn at Go Hunt?"

"I SAID 'NO'! Wait, what?"

"It's Go _Fish_, you nincompoop!"

"OWIE!"

Leo had since removed his hand from his brother's mouth and his arms from around his shell and they had both stepped back further into the shadows. Raph gazed pointedly at his brother, a clear question in his eyes. _Is that who I think it is? _Please_ tell me that isn't who I think it is!_

Leo's sigh answered the red clad turtle's unspoken question and he cursed mentally. The voices were only getting louder and the two turtles could only hope their clones were not as "aware of their surroundings" as they were. Granted, they were talking so loudly they doubted they would notice them.

When their clones finally came into view, they were surprised to find a caped figure leading them. Any features were hidden by the hood as the figure suddenly stopped and held up a hand. "Wait!"

Leo stiffened. He _knew_ that voice. Where had he heard that voice before? Raph glanced up at him and understanding passed between them. They _both_ knew that voice. But from where?

"What is it this time?" Dark Leo growled. It had taken some effort but he had managed to stall his three brothers to prevent them from colliding with the irritating woman.

"I thought I sensed something," the hooded figure growled back. "Someone is watching us."

"Bet they're not likin' the view, eh, Red Rover?" Dark Mike giggled hysterically, reaching out to smack the red mutant's thick shoulder.

Dark Raph blinked stupidly for a moment before understanding dawned in his eyes and he growled. "Are you callin' me ugly?"

"I believe he is just stating a fact," Dark Don butted in, in that obnoxious, superior way of his.

Leo could not believe how different Raph's and Don's clones were from them. True, Raph had always been a _little_ slower than the average person, but his dark clone was just plain stupid. And Dark Don seemed to get some kind of sick pleasure from insulting people and his laugh was just creepy, so unlike their gentle computer geek brother. Dark Leo was more similar to his original than he might like to admit, but his mannerisms were much more sinister and he felt no sense of honor. Dark Mike, on the other hand, seemed to be an exact replica of Michelangelo, except he was a lot creepier.

The only clone that Raph could honestly say was nothing like his original was Dark Don, except for perhaps the fact that he did possess Donatello's curiosity and strive to know everything under the sun, and his intelligence.

Those similarities he could have done without.

Raph nudged his brother and asked another question with just his eyes and body language. Their clones and their clones' human companion were still stalled mere feet from them, and he wasn't taking any chances. _Whada we do, Fearless Leader_?

Leo rolled his eyes. He always knew when Raph referred to him as "Fearless Leader" even when he simply communicated it without words. Something about his body language—the slight cock to his head, that obnoxious, ever present smirk, or the challenge in his eyes? Or maybe all three?

_I'm working on it! _Leo's narrowed eyes, his stiffened shoulders, and his scowl communicated this to Raph, who deepened his smirk and returned his attention to the scene before them.

"There's no one there!" Dark Don whined. "Come on, Fearless Leader, tell her already!"

"I can hear you, purple!" The woman snapped.

"My name's Donatello!"

"Do I look like I care?!"

Leo and Raph shared a look. Since when did their clones refer to themselves by _their_ names? Raph curled his lips, his hands immediately going to the hilts of his sais, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. Fine, he would do it _his_ way for now, but, one wrong move from their clones or the woman accompanying them, and he wouldn't hold back!

"I'm hungry!" Dark Mike suddenly whined. "Does this place have raw steak?"

The woman glared back at him, and the audience in the shadows could literally feel the disgust wafting off of her. "Raw. Steak?"

"I like raw steak!" Dark Raph interjected, only to get himself stung once again by Dark Don's vicious tail. "OWIE!"

Raph had to flinch at that. He'd been on the receiving end of that tail before, and, _boy_, did it hurt! In fact, if the barb managed to cut through their skin and the venom managed to enter their bloodstream, Donatello had theorized that it might cause temporary paralysis. Just looking at the wickedly sharp barb on the never still tail made him queasy.

"Donatello," Dark Leo suddenly growled, breaking Raph's thoughts into a million little pieces, "kindly keep your tail to yourself."

"I can't help it!" The purple mutant whined. "It's habit! If Raphael weren't such a simpleton then perhaps I would stop feeling the need to silence him!"

"All right, ENOUGH!" The woman interrupted the exchange that was currently threatening to turn into an argument. She reached for her gauntlet and the four mutants accompanying her immediately cringed and quieted. "Now," she spoke slowly and deliberately, even making the two bystanders uneasy, "you four will be silent whilst we are inside the joint. If any one of you make a fool out of me, I will _not_ hesitate to use this. Is. That. Clear?"

"Yes, mistress," Dark Leo answered for him and his brothers, who were too dumbstruck to form coherent replies. "It will be as you say."

Leo's eyes narrowed of their own accord. The slight change in his clone's tone warned him of his insincerity. _He's planning something_, Leo thought. The way his clone glanced back at his brothers and winked only made him more nervous. _This can't be good_.

Raph watched his brother closely, noting the intensity in his eyes. _He senses something_, Raph thought. _That ain't good. Fearless is nearly as reliable as sensei_. He returned his gaze to their now departing clones and the human, his teeth grinding together as he frowned.

Leo stayed silent until he was certain their clones were out of earshot. They didn't really know how good their hearing was. "I hope you're feeling up to tailing a quartet of monster turtles and one stressed out woman."

Raph snarled in indignation. "Fearless, I ain't scared a nothin'."

"Really?"

"That's wha' I said, ain't it?"

"So, not even that spider dangling over your head?"

"Wha'? WHERE?!" Raph fell back in surprise and yelped as Leo snorted in amusement. It took him a moment, but Raph caught on. "Oh, hardy har har, Fearless. Ma hatred of bugs amuses ya, huh?"

"Hatred, dear Raphael," Leo smirked, "it is not. Fear perhaps."

"Well, looky at little Splintah Jr. Please enlighten ma wit' your wisdom, O Fearless Leader," Raph rolled his eyes as he frontflipped out of the alley, landing on his toes in the middle of the alley. "Ya comin'?"

"If you insist," Leo grinned as he simply stepped out of the shadows. "What do you want to bet they're heading to Sam's as well?"

"Leo," Raph glanced back at his brother. "I'd bet ma bike on that." Leo raised his brow ridges. "Wha'? Ya don' think I'll come through?"

"Shall we?" Leo asked as he brushed past his brother and strolled down the alleyway after their clones.

"Well, do ya?" Raph demanded, stomping after his brother, the irritation evident in his voice.

"Raphael," Leo paused. "Would you kindly keep it down? We are attempting to _follow_ our clones, who most likely have hypersensitive hearing as well."

Raph snorted. "Is that a fact?"

Leo rolled his eyes before turning and deciding to take the conversation no further. "We're losing daylight. Let's hurry before they've been there and gone."

Raph scowled as he hurried to catch up with his brother. "I don' like it." They rounded the corner and Leo put out his arm. "We there yet?"

Leo nodded wordlessly and signaled for his brother to go ahead of him. "Scoutin' duty, huh?" Raph grunted. "Always the fearless leader, aren't ya?" When he failed to get a rise out of his brother, he sighed and stepped out of the alleyway, keeping an eye out for their clones as he hurried across the street to the small street pub in the back alleys of the future New York City.

Once across, he motioned for his brother and pressed his shell against the building, leaning over to cautiously poke his head through the doorway. He frowned. For a Friday night, the pub was oddly bare, only a few regulars and their clones and the woman. They were in the far back corner, apparently in a heated discussion with two shadowed figures. Raphael wouldn't have even noticed them if he hadn't recognized the outlines of their clones standing off to the side of the woman and the two figures she was arguing with.

Raph pulled back and turned only to jump, his hand over his heart. "Leo!" He hissed. "A little warnin'?" Leo held his finger to his beak and motioned at the door. "Yah, they're in there. She's goin' at it with somebody." Leo narrowed his eyes in thought. "I dunno either. Should we go in?"

Leo closed his eyes for a moment, as if he were seeking his answers through a halfway form of mediation. For all Raph knew, that might be precisely what he was doing. Leo's eyes snapped open so fast that Raph started and he shook his head, grasping his brother's arm and pulling him toward another alley to the side of the pub. "Wha' we doin'?" Raph demanded, his hands itching to grab his sais and confront their clones.

"Waiting, Raphael," Leo reprimanded softly. "It is something we _patient_ people do. You should try it sometime."

"Leo, they're right there—"

"Shhh!" Leo hissed quietly, clapping his hand over his brother's mouth as a lone figure stepped out of the pub. The two brothers glanced at each other, recognizing the shape. Leo removed his hand and signed a quick command to his brother, who nodded and gripped the hilts of his sais.

Leo held up a finger, waiting for the figure to move away from the entrance, before he signaled at his brother for them to pounce. Raph didn't need to be told twice as the two of them moved silently and tackled the lone figure.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

The pub smelled like stale beer and cigarette smoke with an odd mixture of women's perfume and men's cologne. Two older men stood stooped over the lone pool table, deep in a game. A young couple sat at a table in the back of the pub, sipping margaritas and laughing gaily. A lone man sat on a stool at the bar, chatting drunkenly with the bartender, a young dark-haired man probably in his thirties.

Alexa paid these occupants no mind, making a sharp right at the bar and heading for two lone figures in the far corner of the pub. The two figures were seated at one of the few booths, deep in a conversation, both with beers in hand and one with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. However, their conversation immediately stopped and they looked up at Alexa's approach.

The man wearing a dark purple cape very similar to her own eyed her the longest. "Long time no see, sis."

"Don't _sis_ me, Randolph," Alexa hissed, placing the heels of her hands on the edge of the table and leaning forward to be eye-to-eye with the man she spoke to. "You lost the right to call me that a _long_ time ago."

"Who's the chick, Zixx?" The man's companion asked, the cigarette in his mouth moving as he spoke.

The other man, who was indeed the notorious outlaw named Zixx who had, had a few previous run-ins with the turtles, most of them self-perpetuated, sighed. "Nigel, you remember my older sister, Alexa, right?"

The other man eyed her for a moment, cocking his head in interest, before his face broke into a grin. "Ah, so she finally came to her senses and disowned you, eh?"

"Something like that," Alexa hissed. "But, I did not come here to reminisce." Zixx raised his eyebrows. "I need some very specialized equipment for a new assignment."

That comment seemed to make Zixx visibly deflate. "Look, Lexi," she snarled at that, "you aren't still in, that, business, are ya?"

"What is it to you, little brother?" Alexa hissed in annoyance. "My business is my own. I am willing and able to pay good money; just name your price. This job needs to be done as soon as possible."

Zixx seemed to notice the four mutants standing mere yards behind his sister for the first time, his eyes widening in shock. He stared at the dark turtles for a moment, something akin to recognition in his eyes. Something about them struck a chord with him, but he had no idea what. "Who're your friends?" He jerked his thumb at the mutants, causing one to snarl at him.

Alexa's eyes flitted to where his finger pointed for half a second before her emerald green eyes returned to boring into him. "That is none of your concern. Do we have a deal or not?"

Zixx still couldn't shake the feeling that he _knew_ those creatures, but he forced himself to turn his full attention on his sister. "Look, sis, this equipment ya need. Any of it illegal?"

Alexa smiled grimly. "My dear brother, you are a smuggler, are you not? What does legality have to do with anything?"

Zixx frowned. "So they are illegal."

Alexa shrugged dismissively. "Some of it. I have prepared a list," she produced a piece of paper she had been busy filling out during the trek to the pub with the mutants. "Do we have a deal?"

Zixx eyed the piece of paper for a moment before meeting his sister's eyes. "How much cash are we talking here?"

Alexa smiled, knowing she had won. "As much as your greedy, filthy heart desires, brother dear. My client is _quite_ wealthy. He will be footed the bill, of course."

Zixx smiled back, feeling an uncommon kinship with the sister he had not seen nor heard from in five years. "Of course."

Alexa's smile faded, her eyes hardening to a solid green that looked as impenetrable as they actually were. It was as if she had barred the gate to her soul and had no intention of letting her brother in. "Do we have a deal?" She repeated, her voice as cold as her eyes.

Zixx took the paper without a word, glancing it over before glancing up at his sister and nodding once. "Deal." He held out his hand and his sister took it, giving it a firm two shakes before withdrawing and dipping her head in a half-bow.

"Thank you for your time, brother dear," she purred as she turned back to the mutants, only to find she was one short. "Where is yellow?"

**AN: I do apologize for making anybody feel guilty at the beginning (that was not my intention), but I just thought I'd warn you. I'm hoping this story will pick up again soon, but I'm not very enthusiastic. Anyway, remember that reviews help motivate me and remind me that other people are enjoying this even though I know I could do so much better. In case anybody's wondering, the birth order will be revealed in the next chapter. So, more reviews equal a faster update since I haven't even finished the next chapter yet! Thanks for reading!**


	6. And the Results Are In!

11

**AN: Geez, I thought I would never get this done! It took me two weeks (I think), but I got it! First off, thank you to the two who reviewed. Reviews really do motivate me and make me stop being lazy and get this done already. I'm sure everyone is anxious to see the birth order, which is revealed in this chapter. Unfortunately, I'm still pretty bored with this story, but I will do my best to update regularly! I have no idea when my next one will be, but this is apparently a longer chapter, so I hope that makes up for it. Anyway, I do not own the TMNT or any other characters affiliated with the Fast Forward season used in this chapter. However, I do own the basic plot, the DNA Reader, Alexa and Dally Rodriguez, and Zixx's friend Nigel. Oh, and Sam's, I guess. Basically, everything nobody cares about except maybe Alexa, which, again, I have no emotional attachment to this character and do not care if she is used as long as I am credited. Anyway, enjoy the story!**

**And the Results are In!**

Donnie watched the screen before him in disbelief. It couldn't be! This was not happening! This could _not_ be happening! He robotically picked up the print off from the floor where he had dropped it after glancing at the screen.

It took him a moment to remember how to breathe. This just couldn't be right! He furrowed his brow in confusion! Right?

A figure stood in the doorway, watching the obviously distressed turtle with satisfaction. A smile crossed the figure's face before he turned and disappeared back down the hall.

Donnie's ninja senses finally kicked in and he jerked up, leaning back to peer at the doorway. "Hello? Is someone there?" Nothing. "Cody, is that you?" Still nothing. "Guys?" This was getting redundant.

Donnie waited for a few more seconds before shrugging it off, attributing it to his currently frayed nerves, as he stared up at the screen once more. There it was. Their birth order, their birthdays, everything he had ever wondered.

It read:

_The birth dates of _Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, _and_ Donatello _are as follows:_

_Leonardo—born on May 15, 2088, 12:54:34 __P.M__._

_Michelangelo—born on September 2, 2088 7:06:29 __A.M._

_Raphael—born on September 2, 2088,7:09:56 __A.M._

_Donatello—born on September 4, 2088, 5:01:11 __P.M._

_The blood relations of _Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, _and_ Donatello _are as follows_:

_Michelangelo and Raphael are fraternal twins._

_Leonardo is Michelangelo and Raphael's half-brother, sharing the same mother._

_Donatello has no relation._

_The physical ages of _Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, _and_ Donatello _are as follows:_

_Leonardo—18 years, 1 month, 6 days, 4 hours, 11.465 minutes_

_Michelangelo—15 years, 7 months, 18 days, 11 hours, 06.224 minutes_

_Raphael—16 years, 2 months, 24 days, 12 hours, 55.993 minutes_

_Donatello—17 years, 5 months, 19 days, 21 hours, 09.661 minutes_

_One chronic illness was detected:_

_Donatello has HIV progressing into AIDS_

Donatello's hand shook as he touched the screen, still not quite believing what he was reading. He was the only non-related turtle? HE HAD AIDS? He shook his head as he pressed his shell to the wall and slid to the ground, burying his face in his palms. HE HAD AIDS?

His body shook as he struggled to keep the tears at bay. How as he going to tell his family? No, he couldn't! Then they would expect him to conjure up some miracle cure that would just make the AIDS go away like he was some &#$% wizard or something!

"Donnie?" Donatello's head jerked up to find Cody standing in the doorway, looking at him with concern. Immediately and without answering, he leapt to his feet and hit the ERASE button on the control panel before hiding the paper in his hands behind his back.

Cody blinked at the sudden movement before striding forward, his hands held up in a placating gesture. "It's all right, Donnie. I just wanted to make sure you were okay." He glanced at the now blank blue screen before returning his attention to the shaking purple clad turtle. "Did the results come through yet?"

Donnie gulped as he silently slipped the paper into his bag whilst holding it behind his shell, shaking his head. "No, the—computer—glitched out on me. Claims it can't process the samples."

Cody shook his head. "No, no, that can't be," he strode forward quickly as he did a quick once-over of the plasma screen and control panel. "Dr. Klaas was just doing a check up on it this morning. Maybe you hit something."

Donnie swallowed dryly, slowly but surely inching his way to the door. "Yeah, that must be it." He gulped before he turned to bolt.

"Don, wait!" Donatello froze with his foot in midair, turning back around to find Cody had somehow managed to bring the results back onto the screen. "I found them!"

Donnie watched with growing horror as his friend and fellow genius read the results, his eyes growing wide. At the last set of information, he slowly turned and stared wide-eyed at the frozen turtle, understanding in his eyes. "Oh, Donnie, I—"

"Don't EVEN, Cody!" Donnie snapped more sharply than he had intended. Cody flinched and that only made Donnie feel worse, but he couldn't stop the flow of words from his mouth. "Apparently, not only am I _not_ related to any of my brothers while they're all related to each other, but I've also got a _chronic illness_ that will most likely _kill_ me within the next six to nineteen months! Oh, and did I mention this _chronic illness_ is a #%^ STD?!"

That was about all he could get out before he completely broke down, the tears trickling down his cheeks and marking a clear path. Cody was by his side in a moment, kneeling and drawing the distraught turtle into a warm embrace. Neither said anything for a long time. They just sat, both lost in their own thoughts as to what this might mean.

Donnie sniffed. "Is there a cure?" He asked his friend, who was now in danger of crying himself. "I mean, this is the future—"

Cody shook his head. "I'm sorry, Donnie. We didn't find a cure. AIDS was just slowly burnt out of society. People just don't _get_ it anymore. We don't even have the antiretroviral therapy that helped stem the course of it anymore. After AIDS was wiped out, it was put in storage and forgotten, I guess." His face fell when the hope that had just begun to creep back into his friend's eyes promptly disappeared, leaving them as empty voids.

"Hey, hey," Cody said, wrapping an arm around his friend's neck. It felt odd to be comforting the turtle. After all, he was only fourteen, and, according to the blood tests, Donnie was seventeen. But, the turtle needed comfort, and Cody knew he would refuse to tell his family, so they were out of the question. "Listen to me, Donnie," Donatello glanced up at his friend, looking pitiful with his tear-stained cheeks and vacant gaze. "This doesn't change anything." Cody had to swallow away the lump beginning to form in his throat as Donnie simply shook his head. "LISTEN TO ME, DONATELLO!" The human teenager exclaimed in frustration.

The turtle jumped and stared up at his younger friend in shock. Cody sighed as he sat cross-legged beside his friend and placed both his hands on the turtle's shoulders, drawing him up so they were looking eye-to-eye. "Listen to me, Donatello," Cody said in a much quieter and more soothing tone. "This doesn't change anything. Your brothers don't _care_ if you're not blood-related to them, and they sure as &#* don't care that you have an STD." Donnie opened his mouth to protest, but Cody held up a hand to silence him. "You know it's true, Donatello. They love you no matter what. _No matter what_. Do you hear me? No. Matter. What."

Donnie said nothing as he stared at his friend for several agonizing moments. Then, Cody was shocked when the turtle held out his arms to him. It took Cody a few minutes to figure out what the turtle wanted, but, once he did, he was quick to comply.

The boy genius climbed onto the turtle's lap and leaned against his plastron, allowing the distraught turtle to hold him close. Donnie was strong and his vise-like grip made Cody wince in pain, but he didn't care. He shifted and tucked his head under the shaking genius's chin, sighing.

The last time he had been held like this had been the night before his parents had died in a hovercar accident. He'd been eight years old, and he'd had a nightmare. And, even though he was too old for it, his mother had pulled him onto her lap and sang him a lullaby until he had been lulled back to sleep.

Back then, it had been to comfort _him_, but, now, it was to comfort the one holding him. Cody shifted once more as he reached up to wrap his arms around Donatello. "It's all right, Donnie," he soothed, rubbing the turtle's carapace and lower shell, resting his head against his shoulder. "It's all right."

The only sound that came from the turtle were sniffles and gasps of breath as he clung to the boy in his arms as if he were a lifeline, the only thing keeping him from giving way to the darkness slowly creeping its way into his mind.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

Ooh, the pain! The pain was too much! His head hurt, his tail hurt, his fingers hurt, his feet hurt, his EVERYTHING hurt! His vision was still black as he shook his head back and forth and groaned.

"I think he's coming to!"

"Figure that out all by yerself, Fearless Leader?"

"Raphael, make sure those chains are bound _tightly_! The last thing we need is him getting lose!"

"No kiddin'? And here I thought we was bringin' him back for tea and crumpets."

"RAPHAEL!"

"A'right, a'right, don' get yer swords in a twist. I'm doin' it."

Dark Mike groaned once more for added affect as he finally managed to pry his eyes open. The original Leonardo stood in front of him, his arms crossed in front of his plastron as he frowned at the one who was currently tightening the chains inhibiting Dark Mike from breaking free from the post they'd tied him to.

Leonardo glanced down and wasn't surprised to see Mikey's clone was already awake. "All right, first things first," he began in his best I-am-Leader-and-you-will-do-as-I-say voice. "What were you doing in that pub?"

"I's not tellin'," Dark Mike slurred, his head still foggy from the blow to the head Raph had given him. "I'sa secret!"

Leo quickly analyzed the situation, thinking of the best means in which to use Dark Mike's current delirious state to his advantage. "All right, Dark Mike," Leo said slowly, crouching down so he was eyelevel with the bound mutant. "What if I promised not to tell anyone?" He held his finger to his beak to make his point.

Dark Mike giggled. "I'sa secret!" He repeated, letting his tongue hang out of his mouth while he barked in laughter.

"I know," Leo replied more quietly, copying the other mutant's tone. "You already said that. It's a secret," he held his finger to his beak again. Raph chortled at how ridiculous his brother looked but dropped his gaze when said brother glanced up at him with a would-you-like-to-do-this look.

Dark Mike seemed to consider that for a moment, reaching up to tap his chin with his claw in thought, before he erupted into giggles again. "A'xa said i'sa secret! She sai' that we's need ta get 'pecial 'quipment fer 'illin' the 'rat!" His giggles became uncontrollable as his head lolled and he thumped the ground with his foot, laughing at his own joke. "We's wenna 'ixx 'cause she's sai' that he's got'sa stuff we's need ta's 'ill 'im!"

Raph blinked and raised his brow ridge at his brother, who gave him a pointed look before returning his attention to the other mutant. Why was Dunn targeting their sensei? Perhaps he was trying to get to them by getting to their sensei first? Leo growled and Raph understood the sentiment. "Why does Exa want this rat? Whose orders is she acting on?"

"Nah '_rat_'!" Dark Mike guffawed, struggling to sit up so his vacant eyes could bore into Leo. "'Rat!" The giggles once again overtook him and Raph had all he could do to hold him upright.

Leo raised his brow ridges at his brother, who shrugged, a your-guess-is-as-good-as-mine look on his face. "Okay, I'm going to ask this nicely, Dark Mike," Leo said as calmly as he was currently capable of. "What do you mean by 'rat'?"

Dark Mike's giggles suddenly subsided and he sat up, his face a mask of seriousness. "Nah 'rat.' B'rat!" He hiccupped as his throbbing head became too much for him to handle and he passed out.

Raph and Leo met each other's gazes and said as one. "Cody."

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

Zixx had never been a fan of surprises. In fact, you could say he downright despised them. He was a smuggler. In his job, surprises could get you killed. Of course, he had hated surprises ever since he was a little kid and his parents had _surprised_ him at his twelfth birthday party by sending him away to a prestigious boarding school.

You might say he had been a bit of a handful. He found such things as kidnapping his neighbors' cats and shaving a stripe down their backs humorous. He thought that dying his little sister's hair neon green had been downright hilarious. He'd even thought snatching frogs from the river and slowly dehydrating them to death was pure entertainment.

And then, one day, his "fun" had gone too far. That had been the day he had first gotten his license. Back then, cars were still driven primarily on the ground, and he had just passed his driver's test the day before. His little sister had begged him to take her for a ride and, after nearly ten full minutes of her following around saying "Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplea sePLEASE!", he had relented. His first mistake. The second had not been making Dally, as her name had been, wear her seatbelt. The third had been when he had pulled into oncoming traffic in a desperate attempt to cross the street before the afternoon rush hour began. The fourth mistake had been when he had swerved to avoid a car and sent them hurtling into one of the metal supports of a suspended bridge.

His fifth and last mistake had been to fail to turn off his sister's airbag. That day, he returned home in the custody of the police, unharmed and alone.

His little sister had only been nine.

Alexa had never forgiven him, even going so far as to tell him to "Go to hell." Zixx would have gladly done so, for he had never forgiven himself either.

That was why he had eventually turned to a life of crime. After essentially killing his little sister, he had barely gotten out of six years of jail time, the judge having taken pity on him. From there, his grades in school had begun steadily dropping (they had never been very high anyway) until he was getting zeros in just about every subject. After completing his sophomore year of high school, he just dropped out since it would be nearly impossible for him to graduate with having to retake every single core class he had, had the previous year. Being a high school drop out with no diploma, no college would even consider him, not even the cheapest, worst colleges out there.

His older sister, on the other hand, had continued to flourish in school, graduating as the valedictorian of her class, the same year that Dally died. She went on to college, earning a degree in Pre-Law. Then, she suddenly took a wrong turn when she refused to attend law school the following year to finish up her degree. For years, Zixx hadn't even known what had happened to his sister, until a friend of his found some intel that stated she was working for an infamous company that employed trained assassins.

Zixx had already been deep into the crime ring himself, and Alexa had refused to reply to his many letters. When she finally had responded to one, she had cursed the very ground he treaded on, demanding to know why he thought he had the right to judge _her_ when he was living a life of crime as well. Zixx had written back an equally vehement letter, minus the swearing, that declared that smuggling was in no way, shape, or form on the same level as _getting paid to kill people_!

That had been the last he had heard of his sister, until she had unexpectedly shown up at the bar he had prearranged to meet an old friend of his at. How she had known he would be there he didn't want to know, but that didn't matter. She was here now, and he desperately didn't want to lose the only family he had left since his father had died of a brain tumor fifteen years earlier and his mother had died from a stroke seven years earlier. His other relatives had basically disowned him following Dally's death.

Saying he was surprised to see his sister was an understatement. At first, he had been elated, then he had quickly realized that his sister was most likely here only because she wanted something from him. Regardless of how much he told himself to relax, his heart had been beating so wildly he swore she could probably hear it and his palms had been sweaty, making it hard for him to hold onto his glass. His words in no way reflected his inner turmoil as he conversed with his sister as if he had only seen her yesterday instead of over twenty-two years ago.

Seeing the four giant _things_ that were with her did quell his nervousness, if only to replace it with something between terror and fascination. He thought they might be turtles, after spotting the heavily armored shell on the back of the one Alexa called "Red," but that was just a guess. They felt vaguely familiar somehow, the way they spoke and interacted with each other perhaps, but Zixx couldn't place why he recognized them. He _knew_ he had never seen these turtle things before, so why would he feel as if he had met them?

His thoughts were interrupted at his sister's question of "Where is Yellow?" He watched with morbid fascination as the blue mutant, the tallest of the three present, although not by much, whirled around to face the other two. The purple and red mutants, in turn, had whirled around to look behind them, and seemed surprised to find the other mutant glaring at them when they turned back around.

"I TOLD YOU TO KEEP AN EYE ON HIM!" The blue mutant bellowed, alerting the attention of the other small number of occupants of Sam's.

"I thought you meant him," Red and Purple chorused as they pointed at each other, turning to share glares at the synchronized answer.

Blue groaned and smacked his forehead with his large three-fingered hand. "Did you at least see where he went?" Zixx was thankful he kept his tone at a more reasonable level. He'd been afraid the roof was in danger of collapsing with his first words.

Blue's eyes suddenly narrowed and he growled. His nose twitched as he sniffed the air intensely for a few minutes. "_Leonardo_," he snarled. In that moment, Zixx knew why he recognized these turtles. They reminded him of the four green mutant ninja turtles who had helped him, quite unwittingly, perform two major heists before. Except, these turtles were a heck of a lot bigger, uglier, and a whole lot scarier. Zixx had to fight to hold back a shudder.

Alexa yawned and stretched her arms as high as they could go. "I don't suppose I'm supposed to know who this 'Leonardo' person is, right?"

Blue growled once more. "He is my original," his growl deepened. "And he has taken our brother along with the aid of Raphael, my brother's original," he pointed at the red mutant.

"We have to find them!" In that moment, Purple actually resembled his original as a look of panic crossed his face. Even though he would never admit it, he cared deeply for his brothers, especially Orange, since they were the only family he had ever known. The Donatello within him made him this way.

"I know," Blue interrupted, reaching out and laying a rough hand on his brother's shoulder and squeezing hard enough to make his brother wince. "And we will." He growled so deep that Zixx's hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. "And we will make them pay!"

Alexa yawned once more and absentmindedly scratched at her stomach where her leotard had been bothering her for some time. "As long as I still get paid, I honestly don't care. Just tell me who to take out, and I'm there."

Zixx stared at his sister in horror before Blue turned toward her, watching her for a long moment, before he nodded. "We will head to the old O'Neil Tech building, and pay our originals a little visit," he smiled evilly. "And then my brothers and I will finish them once and for all."

At that point, Zixx could take no more and he promptly fainted. Oddly enough, his last thoughts were "I've always wondered if this would hurt" before his head hit the ground and he was out.

**AN: Well, I hope you enjoyed it! I will be honest when I say that none of this chapter (in fact, most of my chapters) was preplanned. My stories tend to write themselves. Anyway, thanks for reading! Again, I have **_**no**_** idea when my next update will be, but I wouldn't expect one for at least a week, maybe more. Although, if I get a lot of reviews and I get motivated enough, I may finish Chapter 7 faster. Just saying! Anyway, thanks for reading! P.S. Has anyone else ever finished writing a chapter and realized they've been using the wrong name for their OC the entire time? (I called Alexa Alexis at first). Hm, I really haven't written on this in awhile. That's just embarrassing.**

** On a side note, Donnie's statement of his having only six to nineteen months to live is entirely accurate. If AIDS goes untreated, that is the expected lifespan. As Cody stated, the antiretroviral therapy that used to allow those infected with AIDS to live much longer, even normal lifespans, has basically been shelved since AIDS no longer exists in 2105. Also, AIDS is considered an STD, even though it can be transmitted through other means, same as other STDs. Yes, I did my homework. This information should be accurate if Wikipedia is to be trusted. Let me know if it isn't! And tell me the source you are using for your information. I want this story to be as accurate as possible.**


	7. Never Alone

11

**IF YOU WERE AT ALL CONFUSED BY THE TEST RESULTS IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER, READ THIS FOLLOWING AUTHOR'S NOTE.**

**AN: After receiving two reviews where the readers pointed out some "mistakes" to me in my test results, I realized that some readers may have been very confused. First and foremost, THE BIRTHDATES AND THE PHYSICAL AGES WERE NOT MEANT TO COINCIDE AND WERE NOT "WRONG" EVEN THOUGH IT APPEARS THAT WAY. In this regard, you will just have to trust me as the author that I know (and knew) what I am (was) doing. However, those two reviews also inspired me to do a double-post, so there is a bright side to this. And, yes, the revelation of the results to the rest of the family will be in the next chapter and that "mistake" will be explained.**

**Normal Author's Note:**

**AN: All right, now that that's taken care of, I do want to thank those (the negative and the positive) that reviewed. It made me realize that some readers may have been confused. You may not have realized this, but I happen to LOVE complicated plots and/or plot twists. This story is full of them. I like keeping my readers guessing to the end. So, if something seems like a "mistake," instead of getting frustrated, just trust me. It's probably just a hint at a future plot twist. Anyway, I hope that, that problem has been dealt with. Enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the TMNT or any other character affiliated with the FF season, or Sudoku. However, I do own this plot.**

**Never Alone**

The garden was a quiet place to think when you felt as if the world were suffocating you. The already tall plants swayed gently with the light breeze that blew lazily across the rooftop. Donatello sat with his shell to the garden, his knees pulled up to his plastron as his eyes watched the sun as it slowly began to disappear from the horizon. Tucked inside the bag at his feet were the test results, minus the last apart about the chronic illness.

It had been Cody's suggestion, although Donatello had been thinking along the same lines. The young boy had neatly trimmed the last paragraph from the piece of paper and tucked it away in his jacket for safe keeping. He had then urged the distraught turtle that they should return to the old O'Neil Tech building turned penthouse before the others began to worry.

Donatello had stiffly agreed, robotically grabbing his bag and following Cody down the hallway to the hangar where their HoverShell was housed. All of his earlier enthusiasm for the blood test was gone. It had been replaced with the cold reality that was a chronic illness.

He had AIDS. No matter how he put it in his mind, it still made him feel dirty. He knew that nothing he had done would have caused this. In fact, if the paper hadn't stated the contrary, he would have earlier claimed that they couldn't contract such an illness.

The more he thought about it, the less it made sense. That was why he was still on the rooftop. He had begged Cody to go ahead, saying that he just needed some time to himself to be able to think. Things in 2105 weren't like they had been back home. Although Cody did have several large rooms full of gadgets that he could tinker with, there was nowhere that was just Donnie's place, minus the small guest bedroom on the thirty-seventh floor that he was using as a bedroom. Unfortunately, it wasn't big enough for Donnie to do much more than sleep.

Donnie had always been a turtle of solitude. It wasn't that he was unsocial or didn't enjoy company. He was just more comfortable by himself, holed away in his lab for hours on end tinkering with his "toys." The lack of "alone time" was nearly sending the reserved turtle over the edge. He couldn't _breathe_! If his brothers and father found out about his having AIDS, it would only get worse! They wouldn't leave him alone for one _second_!

Second to the AIDS but just as bothersome were their family relations. Yes, Donatello understood that it didn't matter. They were brothers to the end. And, yes, he _did_ understand that his brothers didn't care that he wasn't their blood brother.

But looking at that piece of paper and seeing the words as clear as day, telling him the news he had always feared deep down, made it all a harsh reality. Mikey and Raph were fraternal twins, for shell's sakes! And, although not their full brother, Leo was at least related to them, having apparently had the same mother.

The odds were one in a million, but it had happened. Donnie sighed, pushing the bag away, resisting the urge to pull out the paper once more, hoping against hope that the words had changed over the two hours since he had last read them.

He wrapped his arms around his knees and pressed his face against them, fighting back the salty tears that threatened to fall from underneath his eyelids. This wasn't something worth crying over!

HE HAD A FRICKIN' STD! How the #&^% had he even _gotten_ an STD?! Yes, he realized that sexual intercourse was not the only way that an STD could be transmitted from person to person. Use of unsterilized needles could lead to it as well, if the previous user had already been infected with the HIV virus that caused AIDs. Yet, Donnie made sure to sterilize any needle that penetrated his or his brothers' skin. That, and his brothers were the only ones he had ever used the same needle as, but never without it being sterilized first.

Another way was through a blood transfusion, but that also didn't make any sense. Leo was the only one that he had ever taken blood from, since they both had AB negative blood, the rarest blood type. And, the test had proved that _Leo_ didn't have AIDs, so that couldn't be it.

The only thing that was left was the transfer of the disease from a mother to her child. That idea was nearly as ludicrous as the others, but it was the only way. His mother had been a frickin' turtle, and, last time he had checked, turtles didn't get AIDS! Although, if everything he knew about science was wrong and turtles _did_ get AIDS, that would explain why his brothers didn't have it. They were not born of the same mother.

_They were not born of the same mother_.

Donnie sighed and pressed his face deeper into his arms. Why would that bother him anyway? His mother was just a normal turtle, as were his brothers' mother. Even if he stumbled upon her while at a pet store or a turtle farm, he would have no clue it was her, and she _certainly_ wouldn't know him.

She was nothing more than an animal.

That brought even more disturbing thoughts to Donatello's mind. Something that had always bothered him. He knew he wasn't human. _But was he a person?_ Was he just an animal as well? His mother was an animal. Sure, that mutagen had made him a larger, much more intelligent, sentient being. But had it made him a person? Did he have a soul? Did he have a _spirit_?

They were able to meditate. They, on some level, could enter the astral plane. Did you have to have a spirit to be capable of such things?

They weren't thoughts that Donatello liked to dwell on. The question of his humanity was a no-brainer, but the question of whether or not he had a spirit, whether or not he had _value_, was another one entirely.

"Donnie?" The quiet voice behind him startled the deeply in thought turtle, making him jump and whirl around. He had been so entrenched in his morose thoughts, that he hadn't even noticed his eldest brother's approach.

Yes, _eldest_ brother. Leo really was older than the rest of them. The DNA test had proven it.

One look into his brother's eyes, and Donnie knew. "He told you," he mumbled hoarsely. He had begged Cody not to tell them, but the boy had refused to promise such a thing. Donnie had hoped that his friend wouldn't tell his family, least of all one of his brothers, but he really shouldn't have been surprised. Discovering that you had a chronic illness was not something you should keep from your family.

Leo said nothing as he took a seat beside his brother. "The sun's beautiful when it sets, isn't it?" Donnie's vacant gaze followed his brother's line of vision, his vision blurry as he saw that the sun had very nearly disappeared behind the tall buildings surrounding them. The sky was bathed in soft pinks, oranges, and yellows, soothing colors that did nothing to soothe the turmoil in the youngest turtle's heart.

"Yeah," he replied, his voice soft. He could feel his brother's eyes on him, but he refused to raise his head from where he had once again pillowed it on his arms. If Leo were able to look into his eyes long enough, he would see just how much pain he was in.

He didn't want any sympathy.

"Oh, Donnie," Leo breathed quietly. "I wish there was something I could say that would make all of this go away," he clenched his fist and hit it into his palm. "But there isn't. There are just some things we can't control."

"You mean you're actually not blaming yourself for this?" Donnie mumbled. The very idea that his having AIDS could be his brother's fault was ludicrous, but Leo was known for having a completely irrelevant guilt complex. It was amazing the things he could blame himself for. He probably would have blamed himself for WWII if he had been alive while it had been occurring.

Leo blinked at him before sitting back and sighing. "Cody warned me that if I did, he would get in Turtle X and beat some sense into me," he smiled wanly at that. "Apparently, he thinks I have a problem."

Donnie laughed humorlessly, his voice and face emotionless. "_Everybody_ thinks you have a problem, Leo."

Leo frowned at his brother, but not for the comment. Even with only the few moments he could see them, he had seen the emptiness in his brother's eyes, and he could hear the pain in his voice. He could sense his inner turmoil. "Why are you hiding from us, Donatello?" He asked, his voice gentle and quiet, but firm.

Donnie finally forced himself to raise his head from his arms and to meet his brother's searching gaze. "If you had just found out you were going to die within a year, maybe less, you wouldn't be that thrilled about being the center of attention either."

Leo said nothing, just kept his gaze on his brother. Donnie squirmed uncomfortably, the tears still threatening to fall. "What do you want from me?" He finally asked, his voice forced and desperate.

"I want you to trust me," his brother replied quietly. "And to let me help you. You don't have to go through this alone, Donatello."

The silence that stretched between them felt endless to the blue clad turtle as his distraught brother stewed in his thoughts. Leonardo hated seeing his brothers in pain, but hated it even more when his brothers wouldn't let him help with their pain. He couldn't understand why Donnie wanted to be on his own, isolated from everyone he loved when he was going through something so difficult. Leonardo was a reserved turtle as well, and he knew what it meant to keep everything inside until it changed you from the inside out.

He had gone through that once himself, and he didn't want to see his quiet, tender-hearted brother broken as well.

Finally, after what felt like years to the other turtle, Donatello raised his eyes and met his brother's gaze. Then, without a word passing between them, Donatello lay down on the rooftop, his body overcome with exhaustion, and buried his head in his brother's lap. "Help me, Leo," he choked out, no longer to keep his tears at bay.

Leonardo petted his brother's head with one hand, using the other to soothingly rub his brother's shell. "Shhh, Donatello, it's all right. I'm always here for you. You're not alone."

The blue clad turtle watched as the sun finally disappeared from sight, bathing the city in darkness. It wasn't long before he began to see the faint shimmering of stars in the sky. He could only hold his brother and pray to whatever deity was listening for a miracle.

Because this was one situation that the leader had no plan and the genius no miracle cure for. They were helpless to the cruel plans of Fate, whatever they may be.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

Mikey and Raph glanced up as their brothers entered the main living area. Leo had disappeared over an hour ago to go check on Donnie, and the two remaining turtles had been fighting back boredom and random bouts of panic as the clock had kept ticking.

Mikey had mostly kept himself busy through fiddling with his nunchucks, since he was still forbidden from playing his video games. He was seated on the floor with a Sudoku puzzle spread out before him, but he had ceased attempting it a long time ago. Raph was seated a few feet away from him, leaning against the back of the couch with one leg pulled up to his plastron, one arm looped around it. He was clutching a holographic magazine in his other hand, but was only pretending to read it to hide how worried he was.

Both were about to let out sighs of relief at sensing their brothers' entrance, but froze when they actually raised their eyes. Leo had stridden in with the half-asleep Donatello in his arms. "Did you two wait up for us?" He asked quietly as his brother stirred in his arms.

"'Course we did," Raph snarled back, his worry coming out as irritation as he leapt nimbly to his feet and placed the magazine on the ground. "Donnie okay?" He nodded at the trembling turtle in his brother's arms.

Leo sighed and cradled his brother closer before answering. "I wish I knew, Raph," he replied quietly. "I only came to tell sensei that he was okay before taking him to bed," he craned his neck in his search of the main room. "Where is he?"

"He said he felt tired," Mikey replied from where he was still seated cross-legged on the floor. "He went to bed about half an hour ago. He wanted to wait up for you too, but we told him we would wait for him."

Leo smiled tiredly in gratitude. "Thank you. Sensei needs his rest." He was quiet for a moment, slowly rocking his brother back and forth and humming to him quietly under his breath.

Mikey and Raph shared a look before returning their gazes to their two brothers. They knew by the way that Leo was acting that whatever had happened between him and Donnie had been pretty intense. They hadn't seen Donnie look so frail and—_vulnerable_—since they had been young children. Leo himself didn't look much better, although he just appeared defeated.

"I'm going to take Donnie to his room and put him to bed," he said quietly, startling his two brothers. "If Donnie feels ready to, he'll tell you what is going on." He sighed, tightening his hold and closing his eyes tightly. "Until then, you'll just have to be patient. Don isn't ready for everybody to know just yet."

Mikey nodded in understanding, but Raph was silently fuming. Donnie was still awake enough that he wouldn't say anything, but he sure didn't understand _why_ they couldn't know what the shell was wrong with their normally composed brother. This kind of behavior just wasn't natural.

The red clad turtle could only watch as Leo disappeared back out the doorway, murmuring something to Donnie that not even his sharp hearing could pick up.

He growled and sat back down on the floor with a _thud_ once they were gone. "He's hidin' sumthin'."

"Of course he is," Mikey replied. "Did you miss that part?" He returned his attention to his Sudoku puzzle before sighing and standing up, gathering up the puzzle with him. "I think I'll turn in too."

Raph could only watch as his only still normal brother disappeared as well. "I don' know what's goin' on," he grumbled to himself. "But I'm sure as shell gonna find out." With that, he too stood up and disappeared from the doorway, heading for his own bedroom.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

He was bored. In fact, he was beyond bored. He was on the point of just flopping down and letting his whatever-a-word-for-beyond-boredom-is put him out of his misery. He was in the infirmary. All alone. In the dark. In the middle of the night. In one of those mobile force field prisons.

He didn't like the dark. He especially didn't like the dark of the middle of the night. And he downright _hated_ being alone. He wasn't used to it. In the short seven and a half months **AN: Since I have no idea how much time passed in the original FF season, I can't say if this is accurate. This story is meant to take place **_**after**_** the events of that season, by the way. (Yes, Zixx survived. Go figure, right?)** that he had been alive, Dark Mike had never been alone. All, or at least one, of his brothers would be with him at all times.

The other Dark Clones had realized his fear of the dark and had tried to "beat it out of him" with subtlety. Dark Raph had tried jumping out from behind things and scaring him while he was out patrolling the sewer tunnels, but that only proved to make it worse. Dark Don had tried mixing together a cure that would render him fearless. The only thing it did was render him sick to his stomach.

Then there was Dark Leo. The impatient, always glaring, impenetrable leader. It would be no surprise to those who knew his original that he had been the one to find a remedy to the situation, but Dark Leo had not found this "remedy" intentionally. Rather, it found him, in the form of Dark Mike's coming to him late one night and asking to spend the rest of it with him.

Now, Dark Leo had not taken kindly to that request. They were giant mutant turtle clones that looked like something out of a late night horror movie. They were NOT scared of the dark. And they most CERTAINLY did not spend the nights in one another's rooms.

However, one look into the swimming eyes of Dark Mike, and Dark Leo felt his resolve weakening. The leader was not nearly as hard-hearted as he liked the others to think, but his "softer" side (if you could really call it that) only came out around the smallest mutant. Something about Dark Mike pulled at Dark Leo's heart strings (yes, he does have them) and makes him act completely out of character.

After a grunt of assent from the disgruntled blue mutant, Dark Mike had happily curled up on the floor beside his brother's bed, which was actually just a large slab of rock that Dark Leo had beaten smooth with his bare fists, stuck his thumb in his mouth, and went fast to sleep.

But, now, there was no Dark Leo to go running to when he was scared. (Yes, the impromptu sleepovers had continued after that point, much to Dark Leo's irritation.) There weren't even a Dark Raph or Dark Don to pester until the emptiness went away.

Dark Mike whimpered and buried his face in his arms. When he was alone, he could let down all barriers and just be who he was. Dark Mike was by far the most child-like of all of his brothers, but this was a fact they found irritating, and he had to strive to hide it while they were around.

Sometimes Dark Mike wished that his brothers would touch him more, and he didn't mean by hitting him. They did that plenty. He meant comforting touches. The kind that a mother or father might give a distraught child. What Dark Mike didn't realize is that his brothers needed those touches just as much as he did.

The life of a dark clone was a dismal one. Even though the turtles had lived a similar existence back in their own time, they had, had something their clones did not. Splinter, their father. Darius Dunn was by no things a father-figure, and rather treated the clones as something akin to animals—at the best, indispensables whose only purpose was to serve him.

As Dark Mike sat on the cold floor in the dark all alone, he thought of how miserable his life was and if perhaps just ending it would make the emptiness inside him go away. He examined his claw, his extremely sharp claw, as he thought that. He could drive his claw into his temple, that would probably kill him. Dark Don had once told him that the temple was the only spot that the skull did not cover the brain. And Dark Mike knew that the brain was important, although he wasn't sure why, so driving his claw into his brain would probably kill him, right?

Yet, as he thought about his brothers, he knew he couldn't do it. "Leo would kill me if I killed myself," he muttered to himself, giggling at that absurd thought.

No, he would hold on. His brothers would come. They might fight, call each other names, and attempt to commit fratricide daily, but they did care for each other. They would come. And then he could escape this loneliness.

**AN: I can't help but like the Dark Clones. I see them more as victims of circumstance than actual criminals. Crime is all they've ever known, and they haven't known much. They haven't known family, and they certainly haven't known love. The closest thing they have to a "family" is each other, so I imagine they cling tightly to what little they have. I especially like Dark Mike, and see him as a lost little boy (or turtle, if you prefer) who just wants to be held and loved. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And don't forget to review! As you can see, they really do motivate me, even if they are somewhat negative. I accept all kinds, and do appreciate the pointing out of my mistakes. Just remember, most of the time the "mistakes," unless they're spelling and grammar mistakes, are actually not mistakes at all. Anyway, thanks for reading!**


	8. The Presentation

**AN: I have to say that this was a fun chapter to write. The test results will be further explained in this chapter, as said in the author's notes of the last chapter, so I hope this answers any questions you may have. Enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot, Dr. Klaas, and Alexa Rodriguez. I receive no profit from writing this, and am only doing so for entertainment purposes.**

**The "Presentation"**

"All right then, everybody," Donatello began in his best Professor voice as he held the stack of test results copies in his hands. "Take a seat and I will begin the explanation of the results."

"Isn't this a little overkill?" Mikey muttered to Raph as he moved to take a seat in one of the plastic desks that Donnie thought up. Donnie had decided to do his "presentation" in the dojo, since he could simply think of a scenario and it would be there. He had thought up an actual lecture hall complete with a whiteboard and a projector.

Raph sat in the desk beside his brother and shrugged. "Ya think? Donnie's takin' this whole thing jus' a little too seriously."

"Guys, we've been over this," Leo began wearily from his seat in the desk to Mikey's right. "Donnie had a rough night and this is just his way of getting his mind off things. Cut him some slack."

"Ya don' really look like Mr. Sunshine yerself, Fearless," Raph retorted, leaning forward to get a better look at his brother. Leo looked only a little less worn out than he had last night, and Raph swore he saw bags under his eyes, which was weird because they were wearing their ninja masks.

"As I said, it was a rough night," Leo replied unwaveringly, returning his attention to the front. He had lied last night when he had said he was taking Donnie to his room. The younger turtle had spent the night in Leo's room, tossing and turning and generally just acting as expected from someone who had just found out his life had drastically been cut short.

If one were to see Donnie then, he wouldn't know just the amount of inner turmoil that was still swelling inside of him as he wrote out the results on the whiteboard, which he had turned around so his brothers, father, Serling, and Cody couldn't see.

"Is this all really _necessary_?" Serling complained as he attempted to slip into the much too small desk to Leo's right.

"Serling, this is important to Donnie," Cody scolded as he easily slipped into the seat to the right of the desk Serling was failing to slip into. "You _might_ have to stand, Serling."

The robot _harrumphed_ before ceasing his attempt at squeezing his large self into the very un-large space and simply stood behind the desk. "There are so many other things I have to do! These _cretins_—"

Cody gave the robot a look that silenced the robot. Serling sighed and instead decided to fiddle with the back of the chair and to twiddle his thumbs (Does he have thumbs?) until the "presentation" was over.

"Are you ready to begin, my son?" Splinter asked as he took the last desk on the other side of Raph. "I am anxious to see these results of yours."

"Of course you are," Serling muttered, to which Cody reached out and touched the robot in a warning.

"_Hai_, sensei," Donnie said a few moments later as he came around from behind the still turned around whiteboard and preceded to hand out the copies to his "students." "Now, before we begin—"

"Wait a minute!" Mikey interrupted as he raised his hand, his eyes fixated on the paper in his hands. "Why does this thing say we were born in 2088?"

Donnie sighed, preparing himself for multiple interruptions before he'd even gotten to the presentation. "All right then, on second thought, let's make this a Q & A," when Mikey raised his hand again, "that's question and answer, Mikey," the hand went back down, "time."

"Stupid machine!" Raph grumbled, as he caught sight of his name in the bottom half of the birth order. "Can't even get our birthdays right."

"I assure you, Raphael," Donnie said, still in Professor Mode, "our birthdates are entirely accurate. And, in answer to your question, Michelangelo, it says 2088 because the machine has no idea that we are from the past. It's recording the year we were born according to what it _would_ have been if we had actually been born in this century. We were actually born in _19_88."

"Duh, shell-fer-brains!" Raph exclaimed, reaching out to whap Mikey on the back of the head, even though he had been just as confused by that.

"Any other questions?" Donnie said with as much patience as he could muster at the moment.

"Yeah," Raph began, waiting until he had Donnie's attention to continue, "why does this thing say I was born after Mikey when I'mma older than 'im?"

"You aren't older than he is, Raph," Donnie replied. "He was born three and a half minutes before you."

"Yeah, I am," Raph persisted. "It says here that I'm sixteen and he's fifteen. So, I'm older."

Donnie sighed. Now came the hard part of trying to explain the nature of their mutation to his less-than-scientifically-inclined brothers. _Again_. "Raphael, I've told you time and again. The mutagen caused us all to mutate, and subsequently _age_, at different rates. Yes, we were all born within four months of each other, but our physical ages differ. Physically, you are sixteen and he is fifteen, but Mikey _was_ born before you."

"Ha!" Mikey exclaimed, although he too had been wondering that. Neither he nor Raphael paid much attention during Donnie's genius rants about the "nature of their mutations and subsequent aging." "I'm older than you!"

"By three minutes!" Raph retorted.

"Three and a _half_ minutes!"

"Yah, well I can still take ya in a fight!"

"Why don't you prove it, _little brother_?"

"A'right, that's it!"

"MY SONS!" The two bickering turtles, who had since gotten up and were standing face-to-face, immediately froze and turned as one to stared at their sensei. "Please allow Donatello to continue before you begin bickering."

They both plopped back down in their seats, but Mikey couldn't resist mouthing "_little_ brother" at Raph one more time. Raph snarled but simply clenched his hands into fists and imagined pounding Mikey into a turtle-cake later.

Donnie sighed, rolling his eyes to the heavens. "Any _other_ questions?" After a long silence of four blank (his brothers and sensei), one bored (Serling), and one attentive (Cody) look(s) meeting his gaze, he took that as a 'no' and moved on. "All right then, onto the presentation!"

Donnie grabbed the whiteboard, rolled it closer to the semicircle of desks, and turned it around reverentially. Mikey and Raph groaned to themselves at their brother's melodramatic "reveal." "These are the results that the DNA Reader gave me for the blood samples I programmed into it," Donnie began, eager to bestow this knowledge on his less than enthusiastic family. "First, we will begin with the birthdates." He produced a pen lighter from the bag at his feet and shone it on the board, bathing the first set of data in a soft green light.

"As you can see, according to this, Leo is four months older than the rest of us . . ." Donnie trailed off as he stared harder at that particular piece of information. "Master Splinter?" He asked after some time in which his audience had become restless.

The rat appeared startled at being addressed, for his thoughts had been drifting to his shows that would be on later today, and he jerked up. "Yes, my son?" He thought he heard Michelangelo and Raphael chortling beside him, but he decided to ignore their antics.

Donnie was lost in thought. When he had first read the results, he had not noticed the sentence that seemed to blatantly contradict what he had always known to be true. Of course, he had pretty much lost all interest in the other information after reading that he had AIDS, but he was still embarrassed that he hadn't noticed this before now. "When you first found us down in that sewer, you know, crawling around in the ooze?" Splinter nodded, encouraging his son to go on. "Was Leo bigger than the rest of us?"

Splinter was surprised at the question and realized that this must be important, or else Donatello wouldn't look so anxious. Although the memories of his days as a rat were vaguely dim, he remembered clearly the day he had found his sons in the sewer. "I do not believe so, Donatello. As I recall, you were all roughly about the same size."

Donnie's frown deepened, as he stared at the board. "That doesn't make any sense."

"What doesn't make any sense, Don?" Leo asked, a little worried since his brother's distress seemed to stem from one of the bits of information about himself.

Donnie turned and met his eldest brother's gaze. "Leo, turtle infants tend to grow. If you really had been born a full four months before the rest of us, you should have been at least twice our size."

"Maybe he was a runt," Raph interjected, earning himself a glare from his blue clad brother. "I always did think he was a little on the short side." At that, Leo reached out and socked him in the shoulder. Raph was on too much of a roll to complain. "That, or maybe he shrunk."

"Raphael," Splinter began tiredly. "I may not know much about turtle physiology, but I am fairly certain that they do not _shrink_."

Raph shrugged. "Ya never know."

"Turtles don't shrink, Raph," Donnie interrupted the quickly escalating discussion bluntly. "And, even if Leo had been a little on the small side," Leo gave his brother a wounded look, "no offense, Leo," the blue clad turtle grumbled but decided that he could deal with the abuse as long as he was still the oldest. "As I was saying, even if he _was_ a little on the small side, he should have still been bigger than us. Perhaps not by that much, but still a noticeable amount."

"Maybe we were all on the big side?" Mikey piped up, eager to join in the discussion, even though he had been zoning out during half of it. "_And_ Leo was on the small side?"

Donnie frowned at that. "Possibly, but it's still a little odd." He frowned harder at the screen. "I do admit, although I know our physical ages differ because the mutagen caused us all to age at alternating rates, there does seem to be quite a range. And, I would have expected Mikey and Raph to be older than I am, but they're not."

"Hey, yeah!" Mikey exclaimed, noticing the name at the bottom of the list for the first time. "Donnie's the baby of the family!"

"Yeah, but you're the most immature," Raph retorted, meaning that in the most literal sense.

Mikey scowled at him, but returned his attention to Donnie after a quick glance at the paper laying on the desk to recheck what his physical age was. "Donnie, isn't it weird that my physical age is less than the number of years I've been alive?"

Donnie sighed, resorting himself to another onslaught of questions. Perhaps he should have kept his musings to himself. "Not necessarily, Mikey. It just appears that you aged much slower than normal. As you may have noticed, Raph's age is less than the number of years he's been alive as well."

Mikey glanced down at the paper once more, just to make sure. "Hey, yeah, Raph, Donnie's older than you!"

"Nuh uh," Raph replied. "He's younger, by three days."

"Well, physically, he's older by, like," Mikey did some quick math in his head, "fifteen months!"

Raph checked the paper himself before glaring at Mikey. "The physical ages don't count!"

"Yes, they do!" Mikey glanced down at the paper before realizing something. "Just not as much as the actual ages!"

Leo sighed and buried his head in his hands. "Donnie, can we just ignore them and continue with the presentation?"

"Agreed," Donnie said as he turned back to the whiteboard. "We'll just let our _little_ brothers hash it out while the grown-ups do all of the important discussing," that got Mikey and Raph's attention. "Ah, I see you two decided to join us. Now, where was I?" He glanced at the board. "Oh, yes. Well, as you can see, Leo was born on May 15, 1988," Mikey started to raise his hand, "Mikey, we've been through this," the hand went back down again, "Anyway, Leo was born on May 15, 1988; Mikey and Raph were both born on September 2, 1988, but Mikey was born three and a half minutes earlier." Mikey stuck his tongue out at Raph, who did a cutthroat motion. "_Anyway_," the two brothers jerked back up and smiled widely at their brother, "I was born two and a half days later on September 4, 1988."

"So, that means our birthdays already passed?" Mikey whined. It was mid-October. "That's _so_ unfair! I totally want a party next year when I'm eighteen!"

"Sixteen," Raph corrected. "Maybe." Mikey scowled at him.

"_Moving on_," Donnie hissed as patiently as he was currently capable before turning back to the whiteboard. "Moving on to our physical ages," he swung around to glare at Mikey and Raph, but they just blinked back at him, "Le—"

"Pardon me?" Serling raised his hand and Donnie gave him a disbelieving look. The robot was unperturbed as he asked his question. "But, what does any of this have to do with me?"

"Serling!" Cody hissed. "The more questions you ask, the longer this is going to take!"

Serling sighed and continued his fiddling and twiddling.

Donnie decided to ignore any further questions from the robot as he continued. "_Anyway_," he was getting really sick of repeating that word, "Leo is apparently eighteen, making him a legal adult," Leo perked up at that, looking somewhat smug. Raph glowered at him, but made no comment, although he desperately wanted to. "I am nearly seventeen and a half; Raph just recently became sixteen; and Mikey is over fifteen and a half."

Mikey glowered at the paper. "Life is _so_ unfair!"

Donnie decided to ignore him too. "As I said before because two certain turtles do not understand the meaning of listening when somebody is speaking to them," Mikey and Raph only glowered at their desks, burning holes in the surface mentally, "that just means how old we all are internally, essentially. However, we are all, technically, seventeen. Leo and I are actually pretty much on track. He only recently became eighteen, and he is a few months older than we are," he did frown at that, but continued, "so that _would_ make sense. However, it appears that Mikey and Raph, Mikey in particularly," Mikey's scowl deepened at that, "aged slower than would be anticipated."

"Yes, very interesting," Splinter suddenly interjected, having just tuned back into the discussion. "Was that all?"

Donnie stared at his father, not fooled for a minute. "Um, not yet, sensei." Splinter had trouble hiding the disappointed look on his face. "Last is our, um, family relations," his voice trailed off a little at that, but he forced himself to perk up and continue. "Mikey and Raph are apparently fraternal twins."

"WHAT?!" Said turtles exclaimed in unison, grabbing their papers as one and reading the last paragraph that they had not bothered reading before.

"I'MMA RELATED TO 'IM?!"

"LIFE IS _SO_ UNFAIR!"

"Yes," Donnie interrupted them coldly. "And Leo is your half-brother, since he had the same mother." Mikey and Raph had to once again pick up their papers to reread the last paragraph, which they had not bothered to finish the first time they had read it.

Mikey looked up, having failed to read the last sentence. "What about you, Donnie? Are you our half-brother too?"

Donnie's face fell and Raph nudged his twin hard, jerking his head at the paper. Mikey stared at him quizzically before reading the last sentence of the last paragraph. His green face immediately flushed, the scaly skin actually gaining a slight pink tint, and he mumbled something under his breath before saying a little louder. "Uh, sorry."

"It's fine," Donnie snapped a little sharper than he'd intended. "We're all still brothers, right? It doesn't matter." His words betrayed his true feelings, as his brothers could see the obvious discomfort in his eyes.

"Yes, we are and it doesn't," Leo interjected, his words much firmer than his brother's. "We were brothers before and we're still brothers now."

Donnie forced a smile onto his face, even though the words still felt empty to him. "Well, that's it for the presentation," he said after he had regained his composure. "Any other questions?" The other occupants of the dojo turned lecture hall glanced at each other, full of questions but not wanting to ask the clearly upset Donatello. "None? Okay. That's all."

Serling immediately stepped away from the desk he'd been standing behind and strode toward the door with Cody following slowly behind, glancing back at Donnie as the lecture hall faded into the normal virtual dome of the dojo. Splinter had stood as well, having missed the entire end of the conversation, his mind too focused on his stories. Leo had frowned, deciding to fill his father in later as he had stood as well. Mikey and Raph had been out of their chairs and racing toward the door the moment Donnie had dismissed them, still arguing whether their birthdates or physical ages were more important.

Leo watched until they left before turning his attention back to his brother, who was playing with the pen lighter in his hands. "I know you're not okay, Donnie, so don't even try."

Donnie glanced up at his brother without saying a word. Leo strode towards him and enveloped him in a warm embrace, tucking his head under his chin and sighing. "Is this about that other thing or the fact that you aren't our biological brother?"

Donnie made a small sound before sighing and tucking his hands against Leo's plastron. "I know you say it doesn't matter, Leo," he began quietly, unable to stop the words coming from his mouth. "But, it's hard being the odd turtle out."

Leo sighed and began to slowly rock his brother back and forth. "Frankly, Donnie, I would rather _not_ be biologically related to Mikey and Raph." Donnie couldn't help giggling at that before once again going silent. "I don't care what some stupid DNA test says, Donatello," Leo murmured against his brother's head. "You're my little brother. And nothing can change that."

Donnie smiled softly before closing his eyes and snuggling just a little closer to his brother. His _big_ brother, he reminded himself. "I guess I just was sorta wishing that you and I were related."

Leo sighed and nuzzled the top of his brother's head with his beak. "What happened in our lives as ordinary turtles is irrelevant," he said after awhile. "What matters is the present, even if it is the future."

Donnie sighed and tried to pull away from the embrace, but Leo wasn't finished yet. "Did you hear me, Donatello?"

Donnie stopped trying to pull away and sighed again. "Yes," he said meekly.

"But did you _hear_ me?"

Donnie said nothing.

_That's what I thought_, Leo thought sadly.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

While the eldest turtle was trying to beat some sense into the youngest turtle (not literally, but you knew that), Cody had decided to make a field trip out to O'Neil Tech and check the DNA Reader himself. He had, had similar thoughts to Donatello about some of the test results, and wanted to see for himself if his growing suspicions were correct.

The lab was empty when he got there, and he made his way over to the large blue plasma screen. He keyed in the password and began his long search of the extensive hard drive of the DNA Reader.

When he came upon a file marked "Test Results," he clicked it and waited for it to appear on the screen. As he read it over, his face became a mask of anger and he clenched one of his hands into a fist. "Just what I thought."

"And what might you be doing here, _sir_?" Cody whirled around to face the speaker, his eyes widening when he saw who it was.

Dr. Klaas had a glint of evil in his eyes as he smiled maliciously down at his "boss." "I see that you became suspicious of those 'test results' of your friend's."

"You're a monster," Cody hissed.

Dr. Klaas laughed as he took a menacing step forward, forcing the boy to take a step back. "Your uncle pays a considerable deal more than this company ever did." Cody wasn't even surprised at that revelation. "You are not surprised?" Dr. Klaas sighed. "Ah, well. 'Good things come to those who wait.'" His smile widened. "And I have waited long enough."

"And you will wait even longer." The second deep, harsh voice was one that Cody recognized and his heart was seized with terror.

Dr. Klaas whirled around and cried in surprise, falling backwards and scrambling away when he saw who, and _what_, stood behind him. "What the $#* are you?"

Dark Leo smiled menacingly, the effect much more sinister on him than it had been on the doctor. "I am your worst nightmare."

"Seriously?" A third voice called from outside the room and Cody's terror escalated further.

"DON'T INTERRUPT!" Dark Leo bellowed over his shoulder. "AND MAKE SURE THAT BITCH DOESN'T GET AWAY! I WANT HER _ALIVE_!"

"What's a bitch?" A fourth voice echoed back.

"A female dog," the third voice replied bluntly.

"Oh," the fourth voice muttered, sounding more confused than before.

Dark Leo rolled his eyes. The exchange probably would have been funny to Cody if his life weren't in jeopardy at the moment. "YOU!" Dark Leo snarled, but he was not pointing at Cody. His finger fell on the clearly terrified Dr. Klaas. "YOU ARE WORKING FOR THAT ASSHOLE DARIUS DUNN, ARE YOU NOT?!" Dr. Klaas gulped and nodded, too terrified to lie. "DONATELLO, GET IN HERE AND TIE THIS ONE UP TOO!"

"Why do _I_ have to do all the dirty work?" Dark Don muttered as he squeezed through the narrow doorway (for them, anyway), pushed past his brother, and entered the room. "Which one?" He muttered, glaring at the two terrified humans with no emotion in his eyes.

"The annoying one," Dark Leo replied, his volume considerably lower as he looked with interest at the screen with the results still displayed on it. "What is this thing?" He strode forward and tapped the screen with his finger even as Dark Don was trying to decide which one was the annoying one.

"Don't touch that!" Dr. Klaas hissed in fear, his love for his equipment outweighing his fear of the giant mutant turtles.

Dark Don smiled in triumph as he scooped up the loudly protesting Dr. Klaas, produced a rope from behind his back, and continued on to hogtie the struggling human. Cody watched with fascination as the man was tied up within seconds and tossed out the door like a sack of flour. "HE'S ALL YOURS!" Dark Don bellowed at the third mutant. The squeal of glee from outside terrified Cody even more than the bellow had.

Dark Leo finally lost interest in the screen, since he couldn't read and had no idea what it said anyway, and turned his attention back to the boy. He smiled that malicious smile once more and Cody couldn't withhold a whimper. "Boys, I think we found us a bargaining chip."

Dark Don glanced at the boy on the floor and smiled a smile identical to his brother's. "I believe that you are right, Fearless Leader."

Dark Leo growled and scooped Cody up with one hand, tossing him over one of his enormous shoulders and snarling. "Let's go," he smiled as he squeezed out the door, heedless of the boy over his shoulder. "We have a trade to make."

The three mutants laughed evilly as they strode down the hall, carrying their three prisoners along with them.

**AN: Ah, yes, I do believe I have regained interest in this story! Thank you to the two who reviewed to point out my "mistake," making me motivated enough to write these up to remedy the misunderstanding! We authors do not lie when we say we love reviews, and they really do encourage us and make us want to update sooner! At this rate, the next chapter will probably be up within the next couple of days. Thanks for reading!**


	9. Search and Rescue

14

**AN: And this just keeps getting better and better! I do believe that this story is coming to a close. At least, it's past the halfway point, nearing the climax. First of all, thank you to everyone who reviewed! They always do wonders to motivate me. I hope that any confusion over the test results was at least lessened after the last chapter. After this chapter, you will probably begin to learn to "expect the unexpected" from me. Enjoy the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I regret to inform you that I have no rights to the characters of the show TMNT, in particular the FF season. The only things in this chapter I own are the plot (obviously), Alexa Rodriguez ("Monica Bartholomew"), Dr. Klaas, and the DNA Reader.**

**Search and Rescue**

The landing of the HoverShell was accompanied by the rumblings of the engine, the blast of the rockets, and the _thud _as its landing mechanisms popped out from its underbelly, sliding it to a halt. Donatello shut down the main power and snatched up his bag before leaping nimbly for the hatch. He climbed up onto the roof and slid down the side, landing silently.

Adjusting his bag over his shoulder, he strolled towards the small door in the far left corner of the hangar that led to the interior of O'Neil Tech. At reaching the door, he hit the button that would shut the hangar door before disappearing inside the building.

Cody had been gone for some time now, and Donatello had finally convinced Leo to let him come to the last place they knew he had been and search for the missing boy genius. The eldest turtle had been reluctant to let his brother out of his sight after the discovery of his—_condition._

Donnie wasn't exactly worried, but he was getting anxious. Cody wasn't answering his shell cell, which meant that he had either turned it off so as not to be interrupted during a delicate experiment, put it on silent or vibrate and had then forgotten, or was currently unable to answer. The last reason was the one that had Donnie anxious. After his uncle had wired Turtle X to kidnap him, Cody always left his shell cell on, no matter how delicate the experiment he was working on was, and he wasn't inclined to forgetfulness.

Donnie would just feel a lot better when he had found his friend. "Cody?" He called out softly when he'd reached the experimentation room of O'Neil Tech. He waited, listening for a reply. When he heard none, he continued on through the building. Heading towards a steel door in the back of the experimentation room, he keyed in the password and yanked it open, stepping through into a dark hallway. "Cody?!" He called again, louder this time.

Still no answer, not that he was surprised. With Cody being the CEO of O'Neil Tech and consequently the wealthiest teenager on Earth (excluding those whose parents were wealthy, therefore making them wealthy), any number of people would have good reason to kidnap and hold him for ransom. Donnie would never have let the boy come alone if he had known he was coming. Cody's ninja training was proving successful with the boy's increasing stealth abilities. It was starting to backfire on the turtles, since Cody was also free-spirited.

"Cody?!" Donnie called once more, peering down the length of the hallway in search of any light up ahead. He knew that this doorway led to some of the older parts of the building, and he thought that Cody's inclination towards exploring could have driven him to head down this way. However, he had no idea where this hallway ended and was just contemplating turning back and searching somewhere else, when his ninja senses suddenly went on full alert.

He ground to a halt and froze, listening carefully. His senses proved true when he heard the faint sounds of arguing voices coming from the other side of one of the many doors scattered along the length of the hallway. Cautiously, he approached the door he thought they were coming from and pressed the side of his head to it. **AN: I know that turtles don't have ears, so I'm assuming that they probably hear a lot like frogs, which hear through a flap of skin on the sides of their head. But I'm not positive, so don't hold me to it.**

The voices were most definitely coming from behind this doorway. He could now make out two distinct voices, one deeper and pompous while the other was higher and arrogant. Donnie grabbed his bo staff, wielding it with one hand as he grasped the doorknob and twisted it.

The voices abruptly stopped, the owners having apparently heard the doorknob's turning, and Donnie had to steel his nerves to push the door open. The inside of the room, which appeared to be a janitor's closet on closer inspection, was dark and Donnie could just barely make out the outlines of two shapes huddled together on the floor.

The two shapes did not move as Donnie felt along the walls surrounding the doorframe in search of a light switch. When he found it, he flipped it and a single light bulb flickered to life. The light it gave only dimly lit the room, but Donnie could now more clearly see the owners of the voices.

One was a woman dressed in a fitted body suit and a long, flowing cape with the hood pulled up. She glared up at him, her eyes flashing what Donnie thought might be green. The other was clearly a scientist, dressed in a white lab coat with glasses perched atop the bridge of his nose. The light was still too dim for Donnie to recognize the scientist as Dr. Klaas. Both the man and the woman were bound at the ankles and wrists.

"Well, this isn't something you see every day," Donnie quipped in an attempt to break the uneasy silence that had settled over them. "Would you two care to explain to me why you are both tied up inside a closet?"

The man only glared at him, but the woman spoke bluntly in a voice that Donnie vaguely recognized, although he couldn't think of from where. "You are a mutant turtle," she studied him closely as he shifted uncomfortably.

"Uh, yes," Donnie began slowly, thinking that this woman must be somewhat slow if she were stating something that obvious. Even with only the dim lighting, the man and the woman were able to clearly make out his shape and the faint edges of a shell on his back. They could also see the bo staff in his hands (although they didn't know that's what it was) and that was why they were being cautious. "I am. But you did not answer my question."

The woman watched him for another moment before shifting uncomfortably. "My name is Monica Bartholomew. I am the newest security guard here, just being recruited a few days ago. My friend and I here," she jerked her head at the man, "were the only ones present when two burglars broke in an hour ago. They tied us up and threw us in this closet so that we could not call the Peace Keepers." **AN: That is what they're called, right?**

It was such a believable lie that Dr. Klaas decided to pipe up. "She speaks the truth, Donatello."

Donnie swung around to stare at the man, having recognized the voice. "Dr. Klaas?" He knelt down and reached out to undo the binds around the man's ankles. "Are you all right?"

"I will live," Dr. Klaas answered vaguely, twisting around so that the turtle could reach his wrists.

"You haven't by any chance seen Cody recently, have you?" Donnie asked as he finished untying the doctor and then turned his attention to the woman. "He's been gone for nearly three hours and he isn't answering his shell cell."

Dr. Klaas scowled at the turtle's shell, but his voice was pleasant as he answered. "No, I have not seen young Master Cody. I am sorry to hear that he is missing."

Donnie froze for a moment at the overly sympathetic reply before quickly continuing his task as if he had not noticed. Something about the doctor's tone told him that he was anything but sorry. Suspicions began to grow in his mind as he finished untying "Monica." "There you are."

"Thank you, Donatello," Alexa said sweetly, automatically realizing that this turtle must be one of those "originals" those traitorous clones had always been referring to, clearly of Purple, since the others had called him "Donatello." She was surprised that this "original" looked much more like what she imagined a giant turtle would look like, nothing like the clones. He was much smaller as well, probably being shorter than she was.

"Can you stand, doctor?" Donnie asked kindly as he slipped his bo staff back on his shell and scooped up a startled "Monica." "I do not know how long you were tied up, but you will be unsteady on your feet for a little bit."

Dr. Klaas was irritated that Alexa did not have to deal with shaking legs and stumbling about, but he hid it well and staggered to his feet, his legs indeed wobbling dangerously. He grabbed onto Donnie for support, forcing a smile onto his face. "Shall we then?"

"I would offer to carry you, doctor," Donnie said, "but the lady would have even more trouble with those boots of hers."

"I'm fine," Alexa protested as Donnie and Dr. Klaas stepped out of the closet, the doctor leaning heavily on the turtle for support. "I can walk."

"Of course you can, miss," Donnie replied soothingly. He had no idea how this woman played into the equation, but he was beginning to wonder if they might know where Cody was. He decided that in a half hour or so they would be back at the penthouse, and then it wouldn't matter. Between Master Splinter and Leo, they would be able to get the truth out of them. For that matter, they could just set the doctor in a room alone with Raph for fifteen minutes, and they'd probably get a full confession. The red clad turtle could be quite—_persuasive_—when he wanted to be.

"I really am fine," Alexa attempted once more, squirming in the turtle thing's arms. Even though it was not nearly as frightening as the clones were, she found herself incapable of trusting anything with the same DNA as Purple. That mutant was clearly mentally disturbed.

That, and she just really hated being helpless. It was true that her high-heeled leather boots would have made walking extremely difficult, but she could have managed. Besides, watching the doctor wheeze and stumble along after the turtle was painful. If only she had one of those laser pointers that could burn through flesh. That would shut him up.

Their pace was considerably slower than Donatello's had been before, and they reached the door to the hanger of O'Neil Tech in twice the time. The doctor's legs shook dangerously as he clutched the edge of the turtle's shell, his knuckles having turned sickeningly white ten minutes ago. His face was flushed red and his glasses were fogged up from the sweat pouring down his face, some of it running into his eyes.

Alexa, of course, looked no different since the turtle had carried her the entire way. Without a word of warning, said turtle shouldered her roughly and pushed the door open. "This way, Dr. Klaas."

Alexa only grunted in surprise, but was secretly plotting the turtle's demise as he practically dragged that pathetic, whiny little weasel through the doorway. She could not see from her position, but she guessed she was inside the building's hangar after she heard the deafening sound of the doors' sliding open.

"Easy now, doctor," the turtle said soothingly as he slipped his arms beneath the doctor's, his hand gripping his side, and supported most of his weight as they trudged to the HoverShell parked in the far right corner of the hangar. "Almost there."

"Where are—we—going?" The doctor wheezed painfully as he stumbled after the turtle. His vision was blurry and he couldn't make out the shape of the HoverShell in the dim interior of the hangar.

"To his ship, obviously, you idiot!" Alexa snapped. After spending two hours alone in that closet with this infuriating man, she wanted nothing more than to slit his throat and put him out of her misery. "Where else would we be going, you insufferable fool?"

Donnie had to hold in a chuckle at the woman's snappish retort. She had spunk, that much he would give her. However, he still suspected that, even if she had, had nothing to do with Cody's disappearance, she might know where he is, or at least what had happened to him. He hadn't trusted the doctor from the beginning, and the fact that he had been at work when today was supposed to be his day off hadn't helped his suspicions.

Clearly, the doctor had forgotten that he had absentmindedly mentioned to Donatello that he had Thursdays off the day he had been in to study the DNA Reader. Donnie made a mental note to search the doctor for anything he could use as a weapon after he passed out from his "exerting" walk.

Donnie dropped the doctor unceremoniously to the ground and readjusted the woman slung over his shoulder. "Be back for you in a minute, Dr. Klaas," he spoke down to the disgruntled man cheerfully before leaping onto the roof of the HoverShell with ease and jogging for the hatch.

"I think he hit his head," Alexa commented as her "rescuer" undid the hatch and hauled it open. "I _really_ hope he hit his head."

Donnie decided to ignore her as he dropped down inside the HoverShell. Despite the darkened interior, Donnie knew exactly where the power switch was and made his way over to it. He switched on the main power and sighed in relief when the HoverShell whirred to life, the lights blinking on.

He dropped "Monica" on the floor before turning towards the door in the side of the ship that he and his brothers never used because they liked showing off to Cody by using the hatch. Donnie and his brothers had found that they liked having a younger male around who practically worshipped them and wanted to be just like them.

It was a good feeling, and one that Donnie particularly enjoyed. Cody was himself a genius, but he never tried to talk down to him or throw his intellect around. No, the boy respected the turtle and was always asking for his input, even if he didn't need it. Donnie highly suspected that Cody might even be more intelligent than he was, no small feat, but the boy had never claimed such. (Unbeknownst to Donatello, Cody had very similar thoughts of the purple clad turtle, believing that his [meaning Donnie's] intellect was far above his own and that he was inferior to the turtle in that regard.)

He hit the button that would open the door before glancing back to find that his female guest had managed to pull herself up into the pilot's seat and was currently closely examining the controls, apparently fascinated. His eyes narrowed in suspicion before he leapt out of the hole in the ship, landing silently.

The doctor squealed in fright when the turtle scooped him up, since he hadn't even heard his approach. "Release me this instant, you—!" he trailed off when he saw who it was. "Oh, hello, Donatello." He looked embarrassed as he pulled at the collar of his lab coat. "Didn't see you there."

"The fault is all mine, Dr. Klaas," Donnie replied smoothly as he leapt back up into the ship. "We will arrive at the penthouse shortly."

"Of course," the doctor said after the turtle had deposited him on the floor. "Where else would we go?" He had trouble hiding the tremor in his voice.

Donatello glanced at him, making a mental note that the doctor would most definitely be their target for interrogation. It was clear who would be harder to crack.

He scooped up the woman, who protested, once more and deposited her into the co-pilot's seat. "No offense, miss, but I would prefer to drive." He grinned cheekily before fishing the remote to the door out from inside a drawer in the control console and hitting the button that would close the door.

"Monica" scowled and slumped back in her chair. "Where exactly are you taking us?"

Donnie smiled to himself as he fired up the HoverShell's engines, backing up slowly until he was able to maneuver the flying ship around to fly it out of the hangar. When he failed to answer, Alexa frowned and slumped even further in her seat.

Why did she feel as if she had just stepped into a cage full of hungry lions that had suddenly developed an appetite for women wearing capes and body suits?

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

Serling was not having a very good day. Why was he not having a good day, you may ask? Because those _cretins_ called the "turtles" had decided to turn their main living area into a training room once more, since the dojo was currently on the fritz. Serling ducked as a sai sailed over his head.

"Sorry!" A very unremorseful voice called out as its owner barely contained his snorts of laughter. "Didn' see ya there!"

"Keep it down, guys!" Mikey called from where he was watching a random cartoon show of the future that he had never seen before. All he knew was that it had superheroes, a talking gerbil, and dinosaurs, and that was enough for him. "I'm trying to watch 'Super Gerbil Gets Prehistoric'!" He peered more closely at the virtual TV guide in his hands. "Uh, I think!"

"Can't, Mikey!" Leo called, parrying a blow from Raph's sais (he had retrieved the one "accidentally" thrown at Serling) and swept the red clad turtle's feet out from under him and aimed a kick at his plastron.

Raph grunted as his shell hit the ground, but he immediately performed a flawless kip up and charged at his brother, who met him with ease. "The adults hav' more impor'ant things ta do!" He snarled at his orange clad brother.

"Last I knew!" Mikey called back over his shoulder, digging around in his plastic bag for a handful of the 2105 version of popcorn (Mikey didn't realize it was just boiled cauliflower; what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him), his eyes never leaving the screen. "I was _older_ than you!"

"Younger!" Raph called, having to go on the defensive when Leo suddenly came at him with a series of swipes and kicks.

"Older!"

"_Younger_!" He dodged a swipe, but ended up receiving a kick to his side, knocking him off balance.

"_Older_!" Mikey shoved a handful of cauliflower into his mouth, bits falling out as he hollered back.

"YOUNGER!" The breath was knocked out of Raph when his moment of distraction allowed his eldest brother an opening to be able to kick him dangerously close to his windpipe. The second youngest turtle went down with a grunt, where he sat panting as he clutched at his throat.

"OLTHER!" Mikey's mouth full of cauliflower made it hard to understand his words, although it was obvious what he had said. "AN' PROUTH OF'IF!"

"ALL RIGHT, ENOUGH!" Leo bellowed before Raph could regain the power of speech. "If you wanna get technical, you're both right. Now, Mikey, if you are not going to join us in sparring, _please_ be quiet while _we_ are."

Mikey tried his best to look offended, but his cartoon show soon had him appeased enough where he turned back around and flopped back, digging out another handful of cauliflower. "Go, Super Gerbil!" He cried before shoving it into his already full mouth.

Raph had since stood back up, still rubbing his throat. "Ah, he's hopeless," he gagged and slapped his throat. "Coul'ya of kicked any _higher_?"

"Sorry, Raph," Leo said, sounding genuinely concerned as he stepped forward. Raph waved off the assistance and Leo stepped back, looking distracted. "My foot slipped."

"It _slipped_?!" Raph exclaimed. "Fearless, ya never _slip_!"

Leo said nothing, his eyes darting to the door, his mind clearly elsewhere. Raph watched him for a moment before it dawned on him why his brother was acting so spacey. "He's a'right, Leo. He jus' went ta look fer Cody."

Leo swung back around to look pointedly at Raph. "I know, Raphael. I'm not worried." His face scrunched up and he returned to his silent vigil of the door.

Raph sighed and rolled his eyes. And people said _he_ was the stubborn one. "Hey, Mikey?!" He suddenly called, startling both of his brothers. "Woul'ya say that Fearless is worried?!"

"DUH!" Mikey called back without his eyes leaving the screen as Super Gerbil performed an impossible triple loop through the air before landing on the head of an Allosaurus and giving out a high-pitched war cry as he then reined it in like a horse and steered the animal to charge the evil Lord Chipmunk's lair.

And you wonder why kids nowadays turn to other sources for entertainment.

"See?" Raph said triumphantly, a smug smile on his face. "Even Mikey noticed. And, you know if _Mikey_ notices, then you've gotta problem."

"Raphael," Leo just resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "One, Mikey is far more perceptive than you give him credit for and, two, I am _not_ worried. Perhaps a little anxious, but _not_ worried."

"Bro, last time I checked," Raph shot back, "those two words meant the same thing."

"Anxious and worried are not synonyms, Raph. They have entirely different connotations."

"I didn't say they were cinnamons. I said they meant the same thing."

Leo sighed, deciding that it wasn't worth it to correct his brother. Some battles were already lost before they had even been begun. "Regardless, Donnie _has_ been gone for quite awhile."

Now it was Raph's turn to sigh, which he made a great show of, copying his brother's expression and posture exactly. "He's been gone for only forty-five minutes, Leo. Face it. Ya got a problem."

Leo reached up to rub his temples, and Raph decided to play the annoying little brother and copied him. Leo eyed him for a moment. "What are you doing?"

"What are ya doin'?" His brother mimicked.

"Stop that!" He dropped his arms and glared at his brother.

"Stop that!" Raph copied.

"I mean it, Raphael!" Leo folded his arms over his plastron, that stern Leader look overtaking his features.

"I mean it, Raphael!" Raph _knew_ looking into the bathroom mirror for an hour perfecting his own "Leader" look would come in handy some day!

"Are you trying to be funny?" Leo asked quietly, taking a menacing step forward.

"Are ya tryin' ta be funny?" Of course, Raph copied.

"HAMATO RAPHAEL!" Leo's worry was making him more frazzled than normal, and he found his patience wearing thin much sooner than it would have been any other time.

Raph decided that maybe now wasn't the time to push his brother's buttons. A worried Leo had a tendency to do and say things that he didn't mean because he didn't know what to do with himself. He was surprised his brother wasn't pacing up and down the room, muttering to himself the many reasons why he shouldn't go after his brother. "Come on, bro. Lighten up."

Leo looked all ready to yell at him again, when he realized his words had not been parroted that time. He blinked twice before he regained his composure, doing so by taking two deep breaths and counting down mentally in his head. "I'm _fine_, Raph."

"My sons?" The oldest and youngest of the Hamato sons in the room turned and bowed as their sensei strode into the room, his walking stick tapping the floor. "Why all the shouting? I could hear it from my garden. Is something wrong?"

"Nothing, sensei," Leo answered hurriedly before Raph could say anything about his being "worried" about Donnie. "Just a little misunderstanding. I am sorry that we disturbed you."

Raph shot his brother a glare when their sensei wasn't looking. He hated it when Leo apologized for him as if he were a young child who was incapable of apologizing for himself. "Yes, _I_ am sorry, sensei," Raph said pointedly, watching his brother stiffen almost imperceptibly out of the corner of his eye.

Splinter watched his sons for a moment before slowly nodding. After another moment, the old rat noticed that one of his sons was not present. "Where is Donatello?"

"Right here, sensei," all three of the Hamato boys and Splinter jerked up and spun around to see their brother/son standing in the doorway, looking grim. "And you will never believe what I found."

"Donnie, where have you—?" Leo began to ask when he was cut off by Donnie's stepping to the side and pulling someone into the room after him.

His brothers and father looked from the person to Donnie in disbelief before Leo took in a sharp breath, letting it out slowly.

He watched the woman, something between curiosity and fear in his eyes, before he could finally bring himself to speak. "Karai?"

**AN: See, I told you to "expect the unexpected"! Don't you just love cliffhangers? Hm, anybody want to guess about what the heck is going on in the last part? (Of course, some of you may have already figured it out.) And now we approach the climax, whatever that is! As I said before, except for some major plot points, this story is pretty much writing itself. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please do leave a review! They make me happy and will inspire me to update faster! Thanks for reading! P.S. And, uh, yes, I do own the idea for the cartoon show Mikey was watching. You can have it though! Seriously, I guess I've watched too**__**much **_**Lilo and Stitch**_**.**


	10. A Turn for the Worse

**AN: Just to warn everybody right off the bat, I've decided to stop bleeping out swear words that are not the f*** or s*** word. (I particularly hate those words.) I guess this chapter just seemed better with them in. So, yes, there is quite a bit of language in this one, particularly in the beginning. But, it's rated T for a reason. Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed! Amazingly enough, I've actually gotten the rest of this story planned out, even to the end! So you're free to guess, but everything's already planned, so, unfortunately, I won't be able to take any major suggestions. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I called my lawyer and he informed me that no, I do not own the turtles, dark or otherwise, Splinter, Cody, Darius Dunn, or Karai. Dang it! Well, better send out those applications for that new lawyer soon! The only character I own in this chapter is Alexa Rodriguez. And who cares about her?!**

**A Turn for the Worse**

"Donatello, what is the meaning of this?" Splinter sounded distressed, eying the woman with unease in his eyes.

"What the hell is she doing here?!" Raph cried. "That bitch has no business being here!"

"Dude, she's over a hundred years old!" Mikey looked even greener than usual. "That is _sooooo_ disgusting!"

"Guys, please!" Donnie held up his hands in a placating gesture, stepping in front of "Karai" when Raph grabbed the hilts of his sais. "Please, just listen!" His gaze centered mainly on Leo, knowing that if he could get his eldest brother on his side, the others might relax, if only momentarily.

Leo met his gaze with an intensity Donnie had never before seen in his brother's eyes before he took a step back and nodded. "Explain."

That one word held so many meanings, that Donnie had trouble pinpointing one as he struggled to compose his suddenly scattered thoughts. He had come in here with a speech all prepared in his mind, but the reaction of his brothers and father had made him completely forget what he had been going to say.

"Please," the woman who looked uncannily like Karai spoke quietly. Her emerald green eyes flashed as she lifted her hood back up and tucked her long black hair inside of it. "Let me explain."

"Shut the hell up, bitch!" Raph cried, his hands trembling from wanting to send his sai through the evil woman's heart. "Ya ain't got no right bein' here!"

"Raph," Leo gripped his brother's shoulder a little more tightly than necessary, an unspoken warning. "I don't think she's Karai."

"What the hell are ya talkin' 'bout, Leo?!" Raph exclaimed, despite the disapproving looks he was getting from his father and oldest brother. He had trouble curtailing his tongue when he _wasn't_ angry, but, when he was, it was pretty much hopeless. "Of course she's Karai! JUS' LET ME KILL THAT BITCH ALREADY!"

"Your brother is correct in his statement," the woman spoke quietly, stepping forward so that she was mere feet from the irate, murderous turtle, who was only being held back by his brother's hand on his shoulder. "I am not the one you call Karai."

"Then who the hell are ya?!" Raph cried, leaping forward only to be hauled back and further restrained by Leo. "LEMME GO, LEO!"

The woman sighed and bowed her head, a few strands of hair falling from her hood and into her face. "My name is Alexa Rodriguez." Raph watched her cautiously, disbelief in his eyes. "As you very well know, it is impossible that I be the _real_ Oroku Karai, seeing as she died over sixty years ago."

"DAMMIT, LEO!" Raph suddenly exclaimed, once again attempting to leap at the woman. "JUS' LET ME GUT HER ALREADY!"

Leo had wrapped his arms around his brother's waist, pinning his arms to his side and holding him tightly to his plastron. "Raphael, please watch your language."

"HELL IF I CARE!" The irascible turtle practically screamed, his hatred for the woman standing before him making him more irrational than usual. "I'MMA GONNA SEND YA WHERE YA BELONG, BITCH! YA HEAR ME?!"

"RAPHAEL!" Splinter very rarely raised his voice, but, when he did, his sons listened. Raphael immediately quieted, grunting when his brother stole the opportunity to lift him from behind and carry him backwards. The red clad turtle protested wordlessly, appealing to his father, but the rat turned his back on his struggling sons and returned his attention to the woman before him. "Who are you, child?"

Alexa sighed and pushed her hood back once more. "It is a bit of a long story," she watched the still wrestling turtles for a few moments before returning her attention to the rat. "The blue banded one is Leonardo, yes?"

Splinter looked surprised. "How do you know my son's full name?"

Alexa grimaced. "I suppose, in a manner of speaking, that I _am_ the one you call Karai. At least, biologically."

Donnie had already heard her back story and decided to interject at that point, since he doubted Splinter or Mikey would pick up on her insinuations, and Leo and Raph were a little busy at the moment. "To be blunt, she's her clone."

Splinter did a double take and stumbled backwards, dropping his walking stick. Mikey looked more disturbed than shocked. Raph was so shocked that he stopped struggling for a moment, and Leo's arms went lax, dropping his larger brother to the ground.

"I know," Donnie continued, pressing on despite the overwhelming silence blanketing the room. "I was just as shocked as you. But it's true! Apparently, Karai gave orders a few years before she died that she was to be cloned after her death. Since she had no heir and she trusted no one besides herself, I suppose it seemed like a logical solution."

"But something went wrong," Alexa picked up on the explanation, looking like a little girl whose mother had just caught her sneaking a cookie before dinner. "After my—creation—one of the scientists who had been caring for me took pity on me and put me up for adoption behind Karai's second-in-command's back. I didn't even know any of this myself until that same scientist tracked me and my family down years ago."

Leo had since rejoined his family, standing face-to-face with his worst enemy and former friend, so to speak. "And why should we believe you?"

"Yah!" Raph interjected, standing up from where he had been frozen on the floor and limping over to join them as well. "Why should we trust a bitch—"

"Raphael," Splinter began warningly.

"Er, I mean, a woman like you?"

Alexa raised her eyes and met the red clad turtle's fiery gaze, her own holding an intensity and a fire that Raph had never seen on Karai. The more he studied this woman, the more he realized just how _unlike_ Karai she was. Karai would never wear something so tight and revealing, she wouldn't smile seductively at him, and she wouldn't wear her heart on her sleeve.

This woman was a different soul in Karai's skin, unnerving but much better than the _actual_ Karai somehow being here in 2105. "Perhaps you have no reason to trust me," she began coolly, her soft tone earning her the rapt attention of Splinter and his sons. "But I have some information that you desire."

"And that would be?" Leo prompted briskly, his voice cool and calm.

"I know where your friend is."

_That_ particular information, Donnie hadn't known. "WHAT?!" He rushed forward and grasped Alexa's upper arms, swinging her around to face him a little more roughly than necessary. "WHERE IS HE?!"

Unlike Karai had been, Alexa was not a seasoned warrior and the grip the turtle had on her arms made her wince quite noticeably. Thankfully, Donnie took note and loosened his grip. Alexa tried to smile, but she found it hard. She almost never smiled genuinely. Her smiles were usually sarcastic and caustic.

"I do not know _exactly_ where he is," she began, keeping with the soft tone since it was keeping the largest turtle wearing red from ripping her to shreds, as she knew he wanted to do. "But I do know who has him."

"And?" This time, it was Splinter who prompted her.

Alexa turned and had to bow her head in order to look the rat in the eye. She had to admit, the giant rat was a lot creepier than the giant turtles. Then again, she'd never been that big of a fan of rodents. "I believe you know them. The clones of your sons?"

Rage boiled within all four of the turtles, even Mikey, and they looked to each other. "Where?" Leo asked for them all, reading the question clearly on every single one of his brother's faces.

Donnie found himself shaking with rage. He knew that if they were all to go after Cody, it would make it far more difficult to sneak in without being seen. He knew that they had done so on many other occasions, but this time felt different somehow. That, and he felt somehow responsible. He should have been keeping a closer eye on Cody. After all, he had been supposed to be watching him as they had been working on the time portal together. He'd just gotten caught up in his work, and, next thing he knew, Cody had disappeared. He had just assumed that the boy genius had stepped out for a minute, but that had clearly not been the case.

"I'll go," Donnie said in such a quiet voice, that only one member of his family heard him.

Leo's head jerked up and he met his brother's gaze, speaking one word. "No."

"It will be much faster and quieter if only one of us goes," Donnie continued as if his brother had not spoken. "It has to be me. I'll be the only one who will be able to bypass any security measures there may be."

Leo's gaze hardened and he shook his head. "No."

Splinter watched the exchange with interest. He sensed there was a reason behind Leonardo's unwavering answer besides sheer obstinacy. Clearly, he knew something about his youngest son that Splinter did not. Hard as the old rat tried, he was unable to enter either of his sons' minds through advanced meditation, and their faces were unreadable.

Donnie was starting to lose his patience. "Look, Leo, I'm not a little kid that you can just boss around! I'm going to find Cody whether you like it or not!"

He turned to go, but Leo grabbed his arm, yanking him back. "I said 'no,' Donatello!" He hissed, his voice soft but dangerous.

Donnie's eyes narrowed and he ripped his arm from his brother's grip in a surprising display of strength. "I'm going."

"Is this some kind of sacrificial thing?" Leo cried. "You figure you're going to die anyway so why bother putting it off?!"

Splinter and the other two turtles reeled back in shock, looking as if they'd been slapped. Alexa just looked confused, wondering what in the world she had just stepped into.

Donnie felt his face heating up. If the others had felt as if they'd been slapped, he felt as if he'd been shot. "Is that what you think of me?"

"I don't know what to think, Don!" Leo exclaimed, his worry for his brother causing him to say things he normally wouldn't have. It was hard being the only one that knew that your brother was dying and being unable to tell anyone else. "But, you need to stop being such an ass and trying to get yourself killed!"

"I'm _not_ trying to commit suicide!" Donnie shot back, beginning to tremble as his emotions got the better of him.

"DAMMIT, DON!" Leo cried, clenching his teeth in frustration. "Why won't you listen to reason?!"

"WHY DON'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE?!" Donnie screamed back, taking several steps back for the door. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to find my friend!"

"Go ahead and leave!" Leo screamed back. "You're nothing but a burden on this family anyway!"

A wounded look took over Donnie's previous angered features and Leo realized what he had just said. "Oh shell, Donnie, I'm—"

"Shut up, Fearless Leader," Donnie hissed coldly, saying his brother's hated nickname with venom in his voice. "If I'm such a burden to you, I'll just get out of your life. That will make things a lot easier on everybody, won't it?" With that, he was gone and Leo was left to face his family.

He would rather face the fires of Hell itself.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

The coldness was already creeping into Donnie's mind as he stalked up the stairs leading to the rooftop hangar. Adrenaline coursed through his body after the heated argument, and he could feel his blood boiling. His head pounded and his hands still shook, his eyelids threatening to spill over with tears. He was finding it hard not to just completely break down there in the hallway.

It was only his anger that was keeping him going. Donnie was not a turtle who clung to emotions like a lifeline. He was a scientist. He needed facts and figures, preferably down on paper so that he could read over and critique them himself. He was also normally calm and reserved. It most certainly wasn't like him to just lose it like that.

But, something inside of him had snapped in the last couple of days. Perhaps it was the knowledge that in less than a year he could be dead, or the fact that none of his family besides Leo knew about it, but it was making him angry. Donnie was not used to holding in this much anger. He had been doing quite well keeping his emotions at bay the last couple of days, but Leo's blatant dismissal of his desire to set things right had sent him over the edge.

And now he feared he would never be able to climb back up.

The heat returned to Donnie's face as he finally reached the roof, panting partly from the exertion and partly from the pent-up anger that was still curdling inside of him. He marched over to the HoverShell without a word, leaping up to the roof and yanking open the hatch with much more force than was necessary.

He dropped down inside of the dark interior, bringing the lid down with him. He robotically went to the switch and flipped it on, not even pausing as he went straight to the pilot's chair and manned the controls.

The engines roared to life and Donnie hit the button that would open the doors to their hangar. He clutched the joystick-like controller in his hands for a long moment, trying to push his brother's words to the back of his mind.

"_You're nothing but a burden on this family anyway!"_

Donnie knew that people could say things in the heat of the moment like that, that they didn't mean. He knew how the mind worked. If someone got worked up enough, he could go on autopilot and be in little control of what his mouth decided to say.

But, as much as he tried to tell himself that, his brother's words still cut deep into his soul, because they had hit a nerve. Deep down, Donnie had feared that his having AIDS could become a burden on his family, therefore making _him_ a burden. Donnie didn't _want_ to be a burden. He didn't _want_ to be dependent and helpless.

He managed to strengthen his grip on the joystick and maneuvered the HoverShell out of the hangar, blasting off into the sky, intent on finding his friend. He didn't know why he felt this crushing guilt overwhelming him, but he couldn't help but feel that all of this was his fault.

All of this had begun with his desire to know their birth order. And look where it had gotten him! His family was falling apart, Cody was gone, and Leo . . . !

Donnie's thoughts trailed off as his breath caught and he had to blink repeatedly to keep the tears at bay. He was afraid that even thinking the words would make it true. Leo had been a constant source of comfort for him, not just in the past few days, but his entire life as well. He couldn't stand the thought of losing any of his brothers. And, he was even more afraid that he would lose Mikey and Raph as well if they were to find out about his having AIDS.

And that was when a chilling thought settled over him. Splinter would have demanded an explanation once he was gone and Leo, being the perfect son that he was, would have reluctantly answered. Then his father and other brothers would know just how dirty he was.

None of this was FAIR! He hadn't done anything to deserve this! His life wasn't fair! It had NEVER been fair! Always having to live underground in the filth that was the sewers, hiding away from the humans that he fought to protect because they saw him as a monster. Being hunted down by enemy after enemy. Then being sucked into this time that wasn't even their own where, despite being able to walk around in broad daylight, they still felt like strangers—unwanted strangers.

How did people deal with this? Back in his own time, it would have been possible for him to receive treatment that could greatly increase his lifespan but, without this treatment, he had mere months, not years. There were some things in life that you could not control, indeed.

As he flew the HoverShell over New York City, he looked down on it through the windshield, but something didn't feel right. Even though any map you looked at would tell you this place was New York City, it wasn't the city Donnie had always known since his first trip out of the sewers. This city seemed too bright and cheery, too fake. Something about this place was just unreal, as if it were hiding its darkness under thick layers of niceties and friendships.

With his crushing guilt and his brother's words still ringing in his head, Donnie continued to fly the HoverShell, wondering if it _was_ even worth it. Maybe Leo had a point. As long as he was alive, he was a burden on his family.

He glared at his shaking hands clutching the joystick-like controller before returning his attention to the sky. One wrong move, and it would all be over. All he had to do was pull back his hands, and he could be at peace.

He stared at his hands and waited . . .

And felt the darkness consume him completely as he made his choice, his hands slipping from the console as he fell back, the HoverShell immediately losing altitude and spiraling out of control as it careened towards the ground.

But all Donnie thought as he faded into unconsciousness was if it would hurt.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

The turtles' old lair had seen better days, although its newest occupant wouldn't have known that. He sat in a puddle of filth, trapped inside a small alcove that his captors had blocked with an enormous slab of rock. His clothes were ripped and dirtied, his hair was so filthy it appeared brown, and his body was covered in large bruises and deep cuts, the filth of his prison already making acquaintance with his pale skin.

The boy coughed and shifted, leaning his head back against the slimy back wall of the alcove, and groaned. If only he had listened to that little voice in the back of his head that had told him not to leave the penthouse alone. If only he had been smarter and acted more like the ninja apprentice he was. If only . . .

His thoughts trailed off as another coughing fit sent his thin body into spasms. He curled into a ball and huddled in the corner of the alcove, wondering to himself if his friends had even realized he was gone yet. He knew that they would come searching for him, but how on earth would they know where to find him?

The harsh grinding of stone against stone alerted the boy to his visitor. He glanced up and blinked through foggy eyes as the slab of rock was heaved aside. With his poor vision and the relative lack of light in this section of the lair, he could only make out the silhouette of the figure as it peered down at him. If he had to guess, he'd say it was Dark Leo, but he was too exhausted to care.

"Our fight is not with you," the figure spoke after a long, uneasy moment of silence, confirming Cody's suspicion that it was Dark Leo. "But, yet, your 'friends' have taken one of our own. We are merely returning the favor."

Cody made no attempt to respond as his body was once again overcome with a coughing fit, the spasms making his body shiver and jerk involuntarily. The mutant turtle in the doorway, whose shape blocked most of the light, looked in at the boy with a mask of unidentifiable emotions on his face before he leaned down and forward, scooping the boy up without a word.

The blue mutant cradled the boy in his arms as he turned and strode across the length of the main room of the lair, towards a corner where Dark Don had set up a small "lab." After much pleading, Darius Dunn had grudgingly provided the curious clone with a tippy metal table and a small collection of gadgets to keep him busy during those long, uneventful days. Of these gadgets, some were medical equipment, and Dark Don, who could read due to the knowledge being passed from his original to himself, had devoured the medical books Dark Leo had stolen for him.

The purple mutant glanced up at his brother's approach, eying the boy in his arms with interest, but disconnection. "Is the human sick already?"

Dark Leo shrugged as he passed the boy to his brother, who dropped him in his lap begrudgingly. "I'm not sure. He was coughing pretty bad when I went to get him."

"Fairly badly," Dark Don corrected without looking up, digging around on the small table for his stethoscope.

Dark Leo rolled his eyes and growled. "I will let you know if I desire a grammar lesson, Donatello."

"You know," Dark Don said as he retrieved the dented stethoscope and proceeded to listen for the boy's heartbeat, "we really should come up with original names for ourselves. I mean, do we really have to have the same names as our originals?"

Dark Leo raised his brow ridge in amusement. "I suppose if you are up to the task of coming up with different names for us, then knock yourself out."

Dark Don thought for a minute, tapping his finger to his chin as he absentmindedly took the boy's blood pressure. "I think we should call you Hun."

Dark Leo's brow ridges were now raised in confusion. "Uh, what?"

"You know," Dark Don smiled up at him maliciously. "As in, Attila the Hun?" Dark Leo still looked confused and Dark Don's smile faded, his joke lost on his ignorant brother. "Uncouth barbarians," he muttered under his breath.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Dark Leo quipped, watching as his brother continued his examination, doing so now by feeling the boy's forehead and looking into his eyes. "He'll live, right? You know we can't make the trade if he dies."

Dark Don said nothing for a long moment, but, when he did, it was not what Dark Leo had expected. "I believe that it's the sewers that are making him sick."

"How so?"

"It's filthy down here, as you very well know. We have excellent immune systems, partly from our originals and partly from Sh'Okanaba's goop that he put us in while we were developing. He doesn't." He waved vaguely at the boy, who had unconsciously curled against the large turtle's plastron. The purple mutant had taken no notice, too absorbed in his explanation. "You wouldn't _believe_ the amount of germs down here. I would have been more surprised if he _weren't_ sick."

Dark Leo frowned. "So, we should take extra efforts to keep him healthy?"

Dark Don frowned as well, unconsciously wrapping an arm around the boy and drawing him closer. "Well . . . I'm not entirely sure how we should do that. I suppose one thing would be to keep him in a cleaner room than that sorry excuse for a prison."

Dark Leo glanced back at the alcove and scowled. He agreed whole-heartedly with his brother. As much as he wanted their brother back, he had no desire to treat the boy like a worthless piece of scum. He had only placed him in that filth hole on Darius Dunn's orders. His hatred for their "master" grew stronger every minute, and he couldn't help feeling a foreign emotion as he watched the boy, realizing just how small and helpless he was compared to them.

Pity. Compassion. Any emotion besides anger, hatred, or resentment was foreign to the three un-captured turtles. Yet, they were also emotions that were not far from them. The four clones were far more alike their originals than they cared to admit. Leonardo was a warrior through and through, but he was also honorable, with a compassionate heart. Raphael was passionate, vividly hating his enemies and voraciously loving his friends and family. Donatello could be logical and undetached to the point of being robotic, but he was also tender-hearted with a quieter voice and softer touch than his brothers. And Michelangelo may be a goofball, but he was kind, generous, and unconditionally loving.

Indeed, sometimes, Dark Leo wondered why he hated his original so much. Leonardo had done nothing to him. But, whatever Sh'Okanaba had exposed them to while developing had festered hatred inside of him that, logically, was unfounded. Their originals had taken him in, given him a chance to prove himself, but he had blown that chance. Perhaps it was his bitterness at his own self that fueled this hatred, or perhaps it was his way of dealing with his guilt, but, seeing the poor boy that Darius Dunn felt nothing for suffering like this, something was stirring inside of him.

"Will blankets and some hot water help?"

Dark Don glanced down at the boy on his lap, noticing for the first time how the boy was huddled against him, but made no move to shove him away, opting instead to simply nod his head. "It's a start."

Dark Leo nodded and took several steps back, already strategizing where he could find blankets that weren't moldy and moth-eaten or where he could find hot water that wasn't contaminated with sewer filth.

"I don't care—what—anybody says," the soft voice of Cody startled the two turtles, who glanced at him in confusion. "You aren't—monsters." He coughed loudly and trembled, pressing his feverish face to Dark Don's plastron.

The boy might as well have twisted a knife into the two turtles' hearts. Their cold demeanors shattered and Dark Don stood, cradling the boy in his arms and meeting his brother's gaze with his own fiery one. An understanding passed between them and Dark Leo nodded. "The fresh air will be good for him." Dark Don murmured.

"Agreed," the other mutant said quietly. "Darius Dunn can kiss my shell for all I care. We don't follow his orders."

They turned and disappeared into the rest of the sewers, feeling freer than they ever had before.

**AN: Can I just say it right now? I HATE DARIUS DUNN! I HATE HIM! I HATE HIM! I HATE HIM! Not as much as Agent Bishop, Shredder, or Stockman—he's too lame of a villain to beat those three—but I still want to see him suffer miserably. Anyway, I believe this story has officially earned a changing of the second genre. I was **_**not**_** expecting it to come this far. Anyway, I hope everybody enjoyed it! Don't forget to review! Seriously, does anybody want to come after me after what I did to Donnie? Feel free to tell me! In the meantime, I'll try to update soon. Thanks for reading!**


	11. The Aftermath

**AN: This chapter is more of a transition chapter than anything. The action should start picking up again in the next chapter. Yay! Anyway, thank you to all you who reviewed! This story is filled with so many things, it's hard to keep track. I had somebody ask why I gave Donnie AIDS. Basically? I wanted him the results to be really upsetting for him, and that was originally just supposed to come from the birth order. But, that just didn't seem plausible, so I decided to give him a chronic illness. I really only picked AIDS because I don't **_**know**_** many chronic illnesses. Hope that answers the question! Anyway, enjoy the chapter! Note: If words are spelled wrong where Raph is speaking, it's not because I can't spell, that's just how he's pronouncing the word.**

**The Aftermath**

Leonardo could not bring himself to meet his master's gaze, choosing instead to intently study his intertwined hands in his lap. Master Splinter was standing before his son, watching him intently with curiosity in his eyes. "Leonardo, I realize that you do not want to break your promise, but this is for your brother's own good."

Leo sighed and finally forced himself to meet that piercing gaze. "Father, you have always told me that promises are sacred. To break one would be dishonorable. I'm sorry, sensei. I made a promise, and I intend to keep it."

Raph stood by the window, fuming silently as he pondered all of the most painful and violent ways he could use to force his brother to talk. Mikey stood on one leg beside him, his shell to the wall of windows with his arms crossed. "Brooding isn't gonna help, Raph."

"Ya don' think I know that?" Raph snarled in response. He set his jaw and turned to glare down at his twin. "What right does he have to keep this all to himself? Don's our brother too!"

"Raph," Mikey sighed in exasperation. "Don't you think Leo feels bad enough as it is? I mean, I'm surprised he hasn't fallen on his own sword yet. I just think he doesn't want to hurt Don anymore than he already has."

Raph froze at that.

"_You're nothing but a burden on this family anyway!"_

"Ah, shell," he muttered, chancing a glance back at his eldest brother, who looked defeated slumped on the couch, his arms dangling between his knees with his head downcast. "With his guilt complex, he must be beating himself up on the inside."

"My point exactly," Mikey sighed. "He's doing a wonderful job all by himself, without you adding your two cents in."

Raph studied his twin for a moment, more intently than he had for the past few days. "Mike, I jus' realized somethin'."

"You have control issues?" Mikey quipped sarcastically.

Raph was too absorbed by his thoughts to even recognize the jab, his gaze still focused on his brother. The orange clad turtle began to squirm under the intense scrutiny, his eyes darting around the room to avoid the gaze. "Since when do you find me so interesting?"

"That's my point, Mike," Raph said quietly. "Right now, yer actin' like a know-it-all big brother. Yer bein' _mature_."

Mikey shrugged. "You forget, Raphie-boy. I _am_ your big brother."

Raph rolled his eyes. "Mike, even if we were goin' based off literal ages, which we _aren't_," he emphasized after noticing the dangerous twitch of his brother's beak, "ya would still be only _three minutes_ older. Hardly worthy of the title 'big brother'."

The twitch turned into a smirk and Mikey fluttered his eyelids up at his brother. "That's three _and a half_ minutes, _little brother_."

Raph sighed and copied his twin's posture, watching his brother and father with a faraway expression in his eyes. "Do ya think we shoulda gone after 'im?"

Mikey quirked a brow ridge up at his brother, his smirk intensifying. "You're actually asking my opinion?"

"_Mikey_."

"A'right, a'right, keep yer shell on. If you want an honest answer, no, I don't." When Raph looked surprised, he continued, "You saw how hurt he was, Raph. Going after him would've just made it worse. Right now, the only one that can set things right is our dear big brother, and he isn't exactly in any shape to do so."

Raph frowned and pushed off from the window. "We should talk ta 'im."

"What's this 'we' business?" Mikey demanded, following his brother as he strode purposefully for the couch. "I don't recall agreeing to this."

Raph turned on his brother and frowned down at him. "Mike, ya really wanna be my big bro?" Mikey looked confused, guarded, but he nodded uncertainly. "Well, big bros gotta step up and take responsibility. A good big bro wouldn' let his little brother do somethin' like this alone."

Mikey frowned and seemed to be genuinely considering that prospect. After a long moment, he sighed and slid his gaze up to his triumphant twin. "Why am I suddenly wishing I'd just kept my mouth shut?"

Raph smirked and hooked arms with him. "C'mon, _big brother_. We gotta bro ta talk some sense into."

Splinter glanced up at his sons' approach, understanding in his eyes. He nodded once before standing and backing away, leaving his eldest to the "Twin Terrors," as Michelangelo and Raphael had come to be known as.

Leo didn't even look up as his brothers dropped down on either side of him, Raph to the left and Mikey to the right. He continued to stare at his hands. "I know what you two are trying to do," he began softly, "but it's not going to help. I'm not breaking my promise."

Mikey and Raph had an intense staring contest over their distraught brother's bowed head before Mikey lost and sighed. "We're not asking you to, Leo." Raph looked surprised, jerking up and glaring at his brother, but Mikey ignored him.

After a moment, Leo glanced up and met his orange clad brother's gaze, uncertainty in his eyes. "You're not?"

"Apparently," Raph grumbled, thinking to himself that having Mikey as an older brother was _not_ in his favor.

Leo glanced at him in confusion as Mikey shot his twin a withering look and turned his brother back around to face him. "Okay, ignore Raph. He's being a hothead again," Raph grunted, but it went unnoticed and he begrudgingly went silent. "And, no, Leo, we're not."

Leo gazed vacantly around the main room of the penthouse, making no move to squirm free from his brother's grip. Mikey was beginning to worry until his blue clad brother finally spoke up. "Then what do you want?"

"What, we ain't allowed to jus' try 'n make ya feel betta?" Raph demanded indignantly.

Leo turned back to Mikey. "Am I still ignoring him?"

"Until further notice, yes," Mikey quipped. "But, he does have a point," Raph looked triumphant before his twin's next statement. "He just needs to learn how to be more diplomatic in making his opinion known." Raph huffed and slumped against the couch, folding his arms and crossing his feet, refusing to look at either of his brothers even though they both watched him for a good ten seconds.

"What I'm tryin' to say," Mikey continued, still keeping his grip on his brother's upper arms, "is that we're just as worried about Donnie as you are. We're his brothers too, and we wanna know what's wrong with him, but we also understand that it's not fair to ask you to break your promise." Leo sighed and bowed his head. "Leo, we know that you didn't mean what you said."

"Shell, Mikey," Leo murmured. "How would _you_ feel if I said that to you?"

Mikey thought for about half a second before sighing and scooting close enough to his brother to where their thighs touched. Leo looked at him oddly, trying to scoot away, but Mikey wouldn't let him. "But, it isn't just Don we're worried about. You don't exactly look the picture of health yourself."

Leo sighed and bowed his head once more. "I can't do this, guys," he croaked, making Raph perk up since his eldest brother's form of address clearly included him too. The blue clad turtle's shoulders shook and Mikey tightened his grip. "I can't handle this by myself." He shuddered, his eyes reflecting the light more than they should, a clear indication that he was dangerously close to crying.

"Ya don' hav' ta, Leo," Raph soothed, sitting up and reaching out to rest his hand on his brother's shoulder. "Ya neva do."

Leo turned to look at him, and the look of pure sincerity and concern on his red clad brother's face was his breaking point. All of the stress from the past few days bore down on him at that moment, and tears were suddenly falling in waves from his already red eyes, as he tried to put together a coherent sentence. Automatically, Mikey wrapped his brother in a hug, splaying his hand on the back of his head and forcing it down onto his shoulder. Raph looked a little unnerved at the sudden display of emotion but, being a turtle that was more in tune with others' emotions than most gave him credit for, he could feel his brother's distress. His hand slid down his brother's shell where he began massaging circles into it, shushing his brother to no avail.

Mikey breathed out and murmured. "We're here for you, _nii-san_. Just let it out. You're not alone. You never have been, you aren't, and you never will be." The words seemed to only make the crying turtle more upset and Mikey sighed, burying his face in his brother's neck and resisting the urge to cry himself. Mikey was very empathetic, meaning he could feel his brother's pain because he had felt that same pain before, he and Raph both. Their thoughts turned to that stormy night when their blue clad brother had crashed through April's apartment window. Time had literally stopped, along with their hearts and thoughts. The harsh reality that they may lose their brother hadn't really hit them until they had been in the ShellVan, speeding towards Casey's grandma's house. Mikey had spent the night with his head pillowed on a blank-eyed Donnie's lap, clinging to him and whimpering. Raph had stood vigil over their eldest brother, never leaving his side.

Mikey and Raph lost track of time as they comforted their brother, but, eventually, Leo's trembling and tears subsided. He was holding Mikey just as much as Mikey was holding him by the time he pulled away. His bandanna was uncomfortably wet around his eyes and he reached up to untie it without a word. Once it was removed, Mikey and Raph just stared at their brother, waiting for him to speak first.

His eyes were still red and there were obvious tear tracks running down his cheeks, but Leo soon regained his composure and sat back against the couch, looking from one brother to the other until he tired and closed his eyes, beginning a deep breathing exercise. Once his heart had stopped pounding and he no longer felt as if his voice would crack if he spoke, he murmured softly, his voice barely audible. "Thank you."

"Shell, Leo," Mikey grinned at his only older brother. "With all the times you've held us when _we_ were upset, one time where the roles are reversed is nothing."

"Speak fer yerself," Raph grumbled dangerously, wondering how on earth Mikey knew about those rare times that he would sneak into their eldest brother's room at night. Many people would think that Raph wouldn't be the kind of turtle to share his emotions with anybody, least of all Leo, but that wasn't exactly the truth. It wasn't that he didn't feel emotion—he just had trouble expressing himself and, at his frustration of the lack of communication, he would resort to his default: anger. When he was so overcome with emotion that he could no longer contain it, he would crawl to his brother and express himself, first through anger until that emotion died and his real ones began to shine through.

Raph shouldn't have been surprised. Nothing got past Mikey when it came to emotions and his brothers. Although, if he thought about it, it really didn't bother him. Mikey had probably lost track of how many times he went to their eldest brother when he didn't want to wake their sensei.

Yes, Mikey was right. One role reversal was nothing.

"I'm the leader," Leo muttered lamely, his voice cracking just slightly.

Raph rolled his eyes and thumped the back of his brother's head. "Enough with that 'leader' crap already, bro. Bein' the leader don't mean ya hav' ta carry the world on yer shoulders."

"You guys just don't get it," Leo continued. "I'm not supposed to show weakness. Weakness can get you killed in battle. Weakness distracts you and blinds you to what's happening right in front of your eyes. My having weaknesses can endanger you guys."

Mikey couldn't help being bothered by his brother's words, because he knew they were true. Whenever Leo stumbled and went down in battle, he either got back up and fought despite his usually grievous injuries, or they collapsed under the pressure. But, that was in battle. "Leo," Mikey began, sounding as if he had aged twenty years in the last ten seconds. "On the battlefield, you're our leader. But, at home—you're just our big brother. And big brothers are allowed to show weakness. _You_ are allowed to have weaknesses. You are allowed to make _mistakes_."

"Not this kind," Leo murmured, silencing his two brothers.

Raph was the first to break the uncomfortable silence that followed. "Love ain't a weakness, Fearless."

Leo jerked his head up and swung around, catching his brother on the arm and jerking him forward. "I never _said_ it was." He hissed dangerously.

The sudden mood swing startled Raph, but he wasn't one to back down so quickly. "That's a load of bull, and you know it." Leo snarled and shoved him away forcefully, sending the larger turtle sprawling on his shell. Raph had to fight to quell the rage that threatened to boil over within him as he sat up and grabbed his brother by the shoulders. "Listen, _Fearless Leader_, yeh were cryin' a minute ago because ya love Donnie. If yer sayin' that that's a weakness, then yer sayin' that love's a weakness. And love _ain't_ a weakness. If anythin', it's yer greatest strength, so would ya stop bein' such a bonehead and stop with all of this 'leader' and 'weakness' bull?"

When his brother's eyes lost the fire that had previously filled them and he slumped, looking defeated once more, Raph wasn't sure what to do. If Leo kept up with these mood swings, he was either going to kill him or kill _himself_, whichever would put him out of his misery sooner.

"Aw, Leo," Raph had never been so glad to have Mikey interfere in his entire life. In fact, he'd quite forgotten that his orange clad twin was still sitting there. "You need to stop being so hard on yourself. Okay, yes, you were a complete and total asshole when you said what you did to Don, but you only said it because you were tired and stressed out. I may not understand why, but you were clearly trying to protect him from something, and Donnie didn't want you to. Shell, we _never_ want you to, but you do it anyway because you're our annoying, overprotective, paranoid, currently bipolar big brother with a guilt complex the size of Raph's ego." Raph started at that, glaring figurative daggers at his twin, as Leo sat up and stared blankly at his brother, either still distant or just plain confused—either was plausible at that point. "You do what you do because you love us, and _we _do what _we_ do because we are rebellious teenagers with a need to prove ourselves by doing stupid stunts just to get recognition. You would too if you hadn't become an adult at the age of nine."

"I do _not_ have an ego," Raph had been muttering to himself during his twin's entire speech.

Leo still looked depressed and—what else was new?—guilt-ridden, but one could tell he was taking his brother's words to heart. "Thanks, Mikey," he said after some time. "I really needed a good metaphorical punch in the face."

Mikey grinned and shrugged, slinging his arm around his brother's neck and squeezing him affectionately in a sideways hug. "That's what I'm here for, bro."

Something was still bothering Raph, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Something that Leo had said during his argument with Don. Something about—and then he had it. "He's sick, ain't he?"

Leo jerked up and stared at his brother, silent but with eyes boring into him. Raph shifted uncomfortably but plowed on. "Ya asked him if he was tryin' ta get 'imself killed 'cause he was gonna die inaway."

Leo fell forward, burying his face in his hands. "I can't _tell_ you, Raph."

Raph frowned. "Thought so."

Leo ground his teeth in frustration, but resisted the urge to pummel his brother. He was _not_ known to show aggression, but Raph just had this special ability to push his buttons. He knew his brother wasn't _trying_ to make him angry, but that thought did nothing to relieve his irritation.

"Leo," Mikey said suddenly, effectively ending the intense staring contest between his twin and older brother, "I think you should go find him." At that, Leo looked as if he'd just been sent to the gallows.

"Mike's right, bro," Raph said after some time, once again putting his hand on his brother's shoulder and squeezing dangerously tight in an attempt to jar his brother out of the stupor he was in danger of falling into. "Yer the only one who c'n make this right."

"Leo," Mikey continued, adding gasoline to the metaphorical fire they were slowly building, "I know that that's about the last thing you wanna do right now, but I _also_ know that Donnie desperately needs you. Even if Raph or I were to go after him, our words wouldn't mean anything. He needs to hear it from _you_."

Leo still looked as if he were resisting, and Raph decided that now was the time to use their greatest card. "He needs ya, bro."

Leo was silent for so long after that, that Mikey and Raph were scrounging for any other reasons they could lay on him. "You're right."

"We are?" Mikey asked before he had registered the comment. "I mean, of course we are! Right, Raph?"

"Duh, Fearless!"

Leo sighed and shook his head, standing up so suddenly that his brothers didn't even register it. "I'm going to go find him, guys," he strode purposefully to the door, but paused before he disappeared through it. He turned and smiled genuinely for the first time since his fight with Donnie. "And, even though you guys think it's unnecessary, thanks." Before either of his brothers could protest, he was gone in search of their wayward brother.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

The streets of New York City had changed much in the one hundred years since the turtles' time. No longer did garbage litter alleyways and homeless people huddle in dirty corners. Yet, there was still a dark side to these streets, one that not many New Yorkers saw anymore.

Crime still occurred, but it was low-key, swift and silent. Not even the Peacekeepers were aware of it all. The Phantoms were only one of many gangs that occupied the streets, living mostly in the older parts of the city where skyscrapers dating back to the 1990s still stood.

It was this part of the city that Dark Don and Dark Leo were currently traveling through. They were careful only to exit the sewers in this district because New Yorkers rarely, if ever, ventured into the older, darker parts of the city. Their lair was relatively safe hidden within the maze that was New York City's sewer system.

Dark Leo was leading the way, glancing back every once in awhile to check on his brother and the sick human boy they had captured. Ever since they had surfaced, some color had returned to Cody's cheeks, but he was still rather pale (of course, he had been pale to begin with) and coughing fits seized him every few minutes. Dark Don was carrying him with one arm, much as one would a young child.

The purple mutant glanced up and met his brother's gaze. "Are we heading into the main part right away, or do you think we should just stay here for awhile?"

Dark Leo scowled, rubbing his chin with one hand while the other drummed against his thigh. His gaze swept the sparsely populated district before he sighed and ceased his fidgeting. "Perhaps that one pharmacy we once went to will have some pills we can give him."

Dark Don nodded. "Worth a shot, right?" He adjusted his hold on the boy before speeding up enough to where he caught up with his brother. "Is something wrong?"

Dark Leo shook his head, an odd tingling sensation throbbing at the back of his skull. "I dunno. I just have this weird feeling."

Suddenly, the scream of a siren interrupted them and they both jumped in terror, their hearts beating wildly beneath their plastrons. They shared a look before taking off in the direction the siren was coming from.

Just like their originals, the dark mutants were fast and soon entered a newer part of the city. Dark Leo held up his hand, bringing himself and his brother to a halt. "Around the corner," he mumbled over his shoulder before cautiously peeking around said corner.

It took several moments for him to decipher the pandemonium before him. Three or four Peacekeeper cruisers were hovering just beneath a street bridge, seeming to be circling around a vehicle, smoking heavily, just beneath it, having clearly been through a gruesome crash.

"What is it?" The soft whisper of his brother startled him, but Dark Leo managed to keep from yelling out. He glared at his brother, but motioned him forward, jerking his head in the direction of the crash site.

Dark Don followed the jerk, his eyes widening when they caught sight of the cruiser. "That's the turtles' cruiser!"

Dark Leo frowned. He had thought he recognized it. "Are you sure?"

"Leo," Dark Don rolled his eyes. "You're talking to the 'smart one' here. Of course I'm sure!"

Dark Leo scowled at the "smart one" part, but he instantly knew what they had to do. "Can you create a distraction?"

Dark Don stared at him blankly for a good two minutes before asking, a hint of bewilderment in his voice. "And I would do this _because_?"

"They saved my life," Dark Leo murmured, his eyes never once leaving the cruiser. A rough plan was already forming in his mind, but he would need his brother to create a large enough distraction to lure the Peacekeeper cruisers over so he could get to the wrecked cruiser. "And now I'm going to save theirs."

Dark Don's eyes widened. "If Master Dunn finds out—"

"He isn't _going_ to find out," Dark Leo hissed. "Because _you're_ not going to tell, and if you _do_ . . ." He let the threat hang, turning the air between them bitter, as he pressed his shell to the side of a building and inched out from around the corner.

Dark Don nodded discreetly, gently laying Cody down before turning back to his brother. "I'll do the best I can."

Dark Leo nodded back as he shimmied the length of the building, edging ever closer to the cruiser. When he heard a high-pitched shriek and loud cursing from behind him, he smiled to himself. He had always thought Dark Don was a bit on the dramatic side.

Immediately, the Peacekeeper cruisers spun towards the noise. When they caught sight of the purple turtle that was staggering in a circle, bumbling around and shouting curses at curious passerbys, they must have decided that, that was a much more important matter to take care of.

Once they were gone, Dark Leo broke into a sprint and leapt atop the HoverShell, ripping the hatch clean off its hinges with his bare hands, yanking the sheets of metal back enough to where he could fit his wide frame through. Once satisfied, he nimbly jumped down, landing on the bridges of his feet.

The inside of the wrecked HoverShell was dark and silent, the occasional flicker and spark of the various electronics and lighting the only sign it had once been running. Dark Leo maneuvered his way across the debris-strewn floor as he approached the pilot's chair.

He grabbed its back and slowly turned it around, his breath hitching at the sight. In the dark, he had no idea which turtle was currently slumped at an odd angle in the chair, but he could tell he was injured. Cautiously, his hand shaking madly, he stretched it out and pressed his index finger against the turtle's jugular.

At first, he panicked but soon relaxed when he felt the steady but weak pulse beneath his fingertip. He knew from what Dark Don had told him that you should never move a trauma victim because you could never know if they may have spinal or head injuries. Nevertheless, he couldn't just leave the turtle here since the Peacekeepers had made no effort thus far to seek out survivors of the crash.

What he didn't know is that the Peacekeepers were under the impression that the cruiser had been unoccupied. Two cruisers that had been out on patrol that afternoon had seen the rapidly descending cruiser and had sped to slow its descent. They had succeeded in getting under the outstretched wings, but were too small, even put together, to stop the descent completely. Backup was radioed, but they would be unable to arrive quickly enough to assist in slowing the cruiser's descent. A heat scan had shown that no life forms were aboard the ship, and so the occupants of the Peacekeeper cruisers only worry was to keep the other cruiser from damaging any city property.

Unbeknownst to them, the only occupant of the cruiser was cold-blooded, and his body had entered a state of hibernation after his last slip into unconsciousness, shutting off all bodily functions but those vital to survival. The upkeep of a steady temperature was one of them, and the turtle's body temperature was not high enough to trigger the scans.

All Dark Leo knew was that the Peacekeepers were not going to help the turtle, so he and his brother would have to. What he didn't know was how. He stretched forth a trembling hand and felt the other turtle's head for injuries. When he found none, he knew that meant he had nothing worse than a concussion, because other internal head injuries would have been serious enough to take the turtle's life very quickly.

He still didn't know if he had any spinal injuries, and that was what was frustrating him. He finally decided that he would have to chance it, cautiously and ever so gently lifting the much smaller turtle into his arms and jogging towards the hatch.

He leapt out nimbly, landing at a dead sprint as he set his sights on the corner that he had first rounded. He reached it in a matter of seconds, the sounds of startled cries of pedestrians and shouted commands of the Peacekeepers echoing behind him.

He finally rounded the corner and was relieved to see his brother standing there, holding a still soundly asleep Cody. "That's odd. I thought for sure it would be the orange one who got in an accident after taking the cruiser out for a joyride or something." Dark Don commented, eying the unconscious turtle in his brother's arms

Dark Leo blinked at his brother before glancing down at the turtle in his arms, noting the lavender mask that had since turned a darker shade of purple. He could see no reason for this so he decided to ignore the fact for now. "We have to get back to the lair."

"Lead the way, Fearless Leader."

A pause before, "OW!"

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that?!"

**AN: Aw, did ya'll really think I was gonna kill Donnie? I'm really not that into character death, unless it adds something to the story. Trust me, one of the genres would be tragedy if a main character died. Chapter 12 should be written and posted within the next week, I'm hoping. Don't forget to review, everybody! When reviewers ask me to update soon, I generally do! Thanks for reading!**


	12. The Phone Call

**AN: Well, this took longer than anticipated. Don't hate me! Because I have good news! If all goes as planned, this story only has two chapters after this one left! Then I can move on with my life and finally finish my story **_**The TMNT of Oz**_**. By the way, you should read that story. In my opinion, it's much better than this one. It'll probably make your head hurt though, just to warn you. Yes, I'm advertising. Anyway, thank you to everybody for reviewing! I haven't counted recently, but it was quite a few! I'm really sorry this took so long, but I'm hoping I'll get the next chapter up much sooner. Enjoy the chapter! P.S. Again, any misspellings in dialogue are indications of pronouncement, not that I can't spell.**

**Disclaimer: I'm going to play lawyer today. I do not own Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, or Michelangelo, nor do I own Splinter, Cody, the Dark Turtles, or Darius Dunn. Furthermore, I do not own the plotline of the FF Season of the show **_**Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles**_**, the 2003 version. Their rights currently belong to Nickelodeon, and they were created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman. Also, I do not own **_**Harry Potter**_**—that is owned by J.K. Rowling. This story is written for entertainment purposes only, and no profit is made. In this chapter, I own Alexa Rodriguez, Dr. Klaas, and the overall plot. Was that thorough enough?**

**The Phone Call**

When they had first arrived in the future, he had been thrilled to stay in such a large penthouse. There were enough rooms that they could all have their own (he and Donnie had shared a room), and he slept an entire three floors above the heavy snorers known as Michelangelo and Raphael! However, at the moment, he was cursing the fact that Cody lived in such a huge place because it was making finding his brother a lot harder!

He had already searched the three floors where most of the living space was actually contained, and had since moved on to higher floors that housed Cody's various storage rooms and his enormous workroom. He had also since turned off the built-in filter in his head as he mentally cursed everytime he would open a door and find it empty.

And that was when his shell cell went off, scaring the living daylights out of him. He fumbled for the device tucked into his belt, his thick fingers shaking as he retrieved it, and it opened automatically at his touch. He very nearly forgot to breathe as he read the caller I.D. icon that flashed on the screen.

He slapped the cellphone to the side of his head. "HAMATO DONATELLO, WHERE ARE YOU?! I'VE BEEN LOOKING—" At the moment, he had quite forgotten their earlier argument and the fact that his brother would probably not appreciate being yelled at.

"_Um_," the deep, rough voice that interrupted him made him slam on his mental brakes since it was clearly not his AWOL brother, "_is this Leonardo_?"

Leo's blood ran cold before bile rose in his throat, and he couldn't suppress the growl that slipped out. "Where is he?" The words were spoken with such malice that it was a few moments before the speaker had mustered up the nerve to continue.

"_We found your bro_—"

"I said 'Where is he?'!" Leo snarled as he clutched the phone so tightly he was in danger of breaking it.

"_If you would just let me finish_!" The speaker complained.

Leo sucked in a breath before he forced himself to calm down. He had to keep his cool if he wanted the speaker to tell him where his brother was. He was only glad that he had, had the sense to call _him_ and not one of his other brothers. "You have one minute to explain yourself before I track this call and hunt you down like the menace you are."

The speaker cleared his throat before continuing. "_Well, that was harsh_." Leo growled again, and that must have encouraged him to shut his mouth and use his time more wisely. "_Look, I know what you're thinking, but that's not it at all. I found your brother unconscious inside your wrecked cruiser. I have no idea what happened because he's still unconscious and I haven't had a chance to ask. Don—that's _my_ Don—says he's fine, just some bruises and a couple of nasty lacerations. He was lucky_."

"Where is he?" Leo asked once more, his voice holding a hint of danger that was not lost on the speaker.

_"We brought him back to our lair so Don could look him over. We would've brought him straight to your place, but . . ."_

Leo could hear the beginnings of a bargain coming on. "What do you want?"

_"I would think that's obvious. You have my little brother_."

Leo started before he could stop himself. It had never quite occurred to him that their clones saw each other as brothers. When his clone had spent that three week recovery period with them, he had referred to them as such, but it had never quite sunk in until that point. Now that he realized this, he suddenly felt guilty that he and Raph had jumped and kidnapped the smallest mutant like they had. Really, it had been completely uncalled for, but they had wanted a bargaining chip in case their clones had Cody, which Raph had highly suspected.

_"If it helps, we have your human friend as well_."

Now, Leo really did forget to breathe. "Why?" He snapped.

"_Again, we thought we could use him as a bargaining chip to get our brother back. And, for the record, when we found him, there was another human there who looked as if he were about to take drastic measures himself. Don't know what happened to him after we tossed him in a closet, and I honestly don't care. Look, you know where our lair is, right?"_

"Yes," Leo replied testily, unable to hide the contempt in his voice.

Dark Leo chuckled before continuing. "_Just come to our lair with our brother and we'll give you both Cody and Donatello back._"

"What's to stop you from just taking your brother back and keeping them both as well?" Leo demanded.

Dark Leo was silent for several moments before he finally continued, "_I just want my little brother back, Leonardo_."

Leo wanted to keep giving his clone a hard time, but he had to remind himself that his brother's and their human friend's well-beings were at stake here. "Fine. We do it on your terms. But, I swear, Dark Leo, that if I find one _scratch_ on my brother's or Cody's bodies that wasn't there before, I will _personally_ arrange a reunion with you and your maker."

The pure contempt and absolute seriousness in his original's statement must have thrown the clone off, for it was several long moments later before he finally replied, ending their conversation. "_I expect no less. See you later, bro_!" The last comment was said with so much sarcasm that it made Leo sick as he listened to the annoying buzzing sound their shell cells made after being hung up on.

Regaining control of his motor senses, he hit the red button that would end the call and dialed his red clad brother's number. The conversation consisted of Leo's attempting to explain the situation while Raph was vowing to do unspeakable horrors to their clones once he got his hands on them and Mikey, who had stolen his brother's shell cell once he heard the word "clone," was holding his twin off with one hand while he pressed the cellphone tighter to the side of his head as he listened to Leo's explanation.

About eleven minutes later, the three had met up in their rooftop hangar. It wasn't until they actually stepped inside that they realized they had a big problem. "How da hell're we gonna git there?!" Raph bellowed as he punched the wall of the hangar for no particular reason, an action which only resulted in one of them being damaged/injured, and that being Raph.

"Calm down, Raph," Leo was doing his best to soothe his brother's irate temper, but he wasn't doing much better himself. About the only one who wasn't wishing all sorts of evil things on their clones was Mikey, who was much too worried about his brother to do so.

Therefore, it's no surprise that the orange clad turtle was the only one that noticed how the shadows in the far corner of the room shifted. "Uh, guys?" He tried, but immediately gave up when he realized that his twin and older brother were already engaged in the beginnings of an argument that would do nothing but delay their rescuing their brother. "Somebody there?" He called out, jumping when the shadows suddenly stepped forward . . .

. . . until he realized that the shadows were actually the shape of a woman dragging the shape of another human being behind her. As she drew closer, he recognized her as Alexa, Karai's clone, but he had no clue who the person she was dragging was.

"Hello, Michelangelo," Alexa greeted in a voice that reminded him so much of Karai he had to resist the urge to whip out his nunchucks and beat her face in. "Fancy meeting you here." She peered over his shoulder at the two bickering turtles behind him. "Did I miss something?"

Mikey rolled his eyes. "Just ignore them. I'm beginning to believe they are physically incapable of having a normal conversation with each other. Er," he gazed down at the man dressed in a white lab coat and wearing large glasses that made his blue eyes bug out of his head, "who's the dude in the lab coat?"

Alexa set her jaw, tightening her grip on the man's shoulder, an action which made the man wince. "Oh, just somebody I thought Leonardo would want to have a word or two with since he messed with your test results."

Leo may have been arguing with Raph, but he had very early on learned to hear what was going on around him even while he was preoccupied with something far closer. In other words, he had heard everything she had said and promptly stopped the argument with his brother, realizing that he had no clue why who had the larger bedroom had become the center of the argument anyway. "What did you just say?"

"Tell them," Alexa nudged the man, who winced as he stood up, favoring his right shoulder. "And don't leave anything out."

The man sighed, forcing himself to look the murderous blue clad turtle in the eye, gulping as he did so. "Your brother doesn't have AIDS."

Two things happened when he heard that. The first was that Leo was beyond relieved. The second was that he wanted to slice the man into ribbons for making him and his brother think that said brother was going to die. "And how do you know this?" He asked after a few moments of the man's standing trembling under his hard gaze.

"Er," the man tugged at his collar nervously. "As Miss Rodriguez said, I may have . . . fiddled with the results a little."

"Define 'fiddle'."

Now he was sweating, the collar of his shirt soaked clean through. "I , uh, deliberately tampered with your results?"

Now, Raph and Mikey were both giving him murderous looks as well, which did nothing to quell the now literally trembling scientist's terror.

"I am going to ask this once, and only once," Leo began in a low voice, "and I expect an honest answer. _Why_ would you tamper with our results and make them say that my brother has an STD?"

"It was the most improbable disease I could think of!" The man suddenly cried, now a blubbering mess as he fell to his knees at the now stunned turtle's feet. "My boss told me to give your brother a chronic illness, but he didn't say which one, and I really didn't want to, so I came up with the most improbable, and frankly impossible, disease for your brother to have! I didn't realize you were from the past and that it entirely _was_ possible for him to have it! Really, I never meant for this to happen!"

The three turtles had moved from being bent on murder to being downright baffled as they exchanged odd looks with one another. Since Leo had already been acting as spokesperson up to that point, he decided to continue the role as he knelt down in front of the clearly upset scientist. "Who are you?" He tried to keep his voice soft, but a hint of anger still wheedled its way into his tone.

The hint was not lost on the scientist, but he stole his courage and forced himself to look the turtle in the eye. "My name is Dr. Darius Dunn, and I am Cody's uncle."

The temperature in the room dropped several degrees as the three turtles, and Alexa, stared at the man in shock. Gaining his courage, the man stood on trembling legs, an action which gave him some much needed confidence since he was a head taller than the turtle who had been interrogating him. "The man you know as Darius Dunn is an impostor. For twenty-five years, I had been traveling the world. I'm a scientist, you see, and I'd been doing some very extensive research. I'd never planned on being gone so long, and imagine my surprise when I returned to my home three months ago only to find that someone had stolen my identity. I was devastated when I found that my little sister and her husband had died years earlier, leaving behind their only son. However, at that point, my impostor had become a very powerful man, and I had to be careful where I treaded. I worked my way into his ranks after I signed up to be one of his personal scientists. You see, he had no idea what the real Darius Dunn looked like, so he had no clue who I really was. I had no desire to do what I did to your brother, but, remember, I picked a disease that I thought he couldn't possibly have and that wouldn't cause any problems. When I confronted my nephew in the lab, I had to be careful, because my impostor, whose real name is Ludwig Vanderbilt, by the way, was monitoring me. I would have told Cody who I was indirectly, but then those other turtles barged in and tied me up and threw me in a closet with Miss Rodriguez over here," he nodded his head at the now thoroughly stunned Alexa. "Again, I apologize for all the grief I have caused your family. I merely wanted to reveal who I really was without alerting Vanderbilt."

"Yer kiddin', right?" Raph asked, the only one who was capable of speaking after the shock they had just received.

"I assure you that I am not," Darius replied, sounding more than a little put out. "I loved my sister and just want to take care of my nephew now that she is gone, but that bastard Vanderbilt had dug his claws in, and I didn't want to endanger the dear boy by revealing myself."

"I believe you," Leo was beyond shocked, but he had earlier learned that sometimes you just had to trust your gut. He had always had a hard time believing that Darius Dunn was related to Cody, but he could actually see the family resemblance in this other man. Cody was a picture of his father, not his mother, but there was something about this man that just reminded him of their human friend.

"You _do_?" Raph asked in disbelief.

"As do I." The turtles, Alexa, and Darius were more than a little shocked as they swung around to see the form of Master Splinter step out of the shadows, tapping his walking stick on the ground. "But, I believe that we have a trade to make."

"I have a cruiser," Alexa said suddenly. "I only ask that I be allowed to accompany you. I have a score to settle with this Vanderbilt person myself."

"Please—" Darius began, but Master Splinter held up a paw.

"Of course you may come, Dr. Dunn," the old rat assured in his soft voice. "We are going to retrieve your nephew as well, after all."

Darius's face broke out into a wide grin, and he couldn't hide the tears of happiness that welled up under his eyelids. "Thank you, sir! Thank you, thank you!"

"No need for such formality," Splinter continued, stepping forward and bopping each of his sons on the back of the head to knock them out of their frozen stances. "I have a son to retrieve, and you have your nephew. Let us depart, for I fear things will not go as smoothly as we would hope."

"Wait!" Leo suddenly held up his hand. "I forgot something!"

The others stared after him in shock as he disappeared into the rest of the house. They could hear the thundering of his footsteps as he descended the spiral staircase rapidly.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

The atmosphere in Alexa's cruiser was uncomfortable, to say the least. It was either too hot or too cold. The chairs were hard, the floor was slippery, the whole place smelt like burnt rubber, or any other number of complaints that Michelangelo could come up with. He was reclining in the back of the cruiser in what might be titled the "lounge area." Seated in the pilot's chair in front of the control console was a very disgruntled Raphael. Even though he did not voice his obvious discomfort, the man seated beside him in the copilot's chair could occasionally hear colorful grumblings coming from the red clad turtle's mouth.

The man was, of course, Darius Dunn, long lost relative to the turtles' friend Cody Jones. The nefarious villain who had indirectly kidnapped said friend had been posing as him for the past twenty-one years, and he was looking to put a stop to it. He and the red clad turtle sat in uncomfortable silence as they waited for the third and final turtle to return with whatever on earth he had forgotten.

Also seated in the lounge area, but on the floor instead of one of the three recliners, an old rat was meditating deeply, searching for his lost son. He had not said much since Alexa Rodriguez, the one who had generously provided the cruiser for their transport, had led them to said cruiser. She had since headed back to the penthouse to wait for Leonardo, who would have had no clue where the cruiser was.

"Sooooo?" Raph began after the silence was beginning to make him antsy and more prone to violence. "Yer Cody's uncle, eh?"

Darius looked startled at being addressed, but he perked up and smiled warily at the turtle. He was no fool, and could sense the vast amounts of pent-up aggression that his companion had buried deep within him. He radiated it so heavily that the doctor could almost feel it. "Indeed, I am." He wasn't sure why the turtle was asking such a pointless question, unless he was simply attempting to make conversation.

"And yeh were gone fer twunny-five years, 'ight?" The turtle continued, the discomfort beginning to surface in his voice.

The doctor was wondering if he should bother answering verbally, or should just nod his affirmation, when the side door of the cruiser suddenly lifted outwards and in stepped Alexa Rodriguez. She had her hood pulled over her head so as to hide her head of long dark hair, although one could still see her flashing emerald green eyes if he looked at the right angle. She strode in briskly, her high-heeled boots clicking on the aluminum flooring as she turned back to the door.

Leonardo was the next to step in, but he immediately poked his head back out as if he were speaking to someone outside the cruiser. Raph watched in interest, but that interest soon morphed into horror when the last latecomer stepped through the, thankfully, wide doorway.

"What da hell's _he_ doin' here, Leo?!" Raph exclaimed, leaping from his seat and immediately falling into a defensive stance, his hands gripping the hilts of his sai tightly.

"Relax, Raph," Leo soothed as he lead the timid mutant in by the hand, hitting the button to close the door with his thigh before drawing the larger turtle in further. "Come on, Dark Mike. It's all right. We're not going to hurt you."

Dark Mike looked anything but threatening as he stood trembling near the now shut door of the cruiser, staring at the red clad turtle with wide eyes while his eyes traveled over the other occupants with a look halfway between interest and horror. "I don' like him!" He suddenly exclaimed, pointing one clawed finger at a now furious Raph while he moved to hide behind Leo. "He scares me!"

"Raph," Leo began testily, sounding worn out and impatient, "don't scare him. He was nervous to come with us, but I told him that his brothers wanted him back if they were to return Cody and Don to us without a fight."

That seemed to deflate Raph, although his trained eyes still bore into the yellow mutant as he shuffled over to the steps leading up to the lounge area and sat on the bottom one, drawing his knees to his plastron and hugging them. "My brudders don' care 'bout me," the other occupants could just barely make out the faint mumblings as the yellow turtle pressed his forehead to his knees. "They jus' wan ther punchin' bag back."

Leo sighed and trotted over to join Dark Mike, settling himself down and wrapping one arm around the larger turtle's armored shell. "Now, I already told you that that's not true, Dark Mike. Dark Leo's really worried about you. You're his little brother."

"Yah, I'm 'is brudder 'n 'm littler th'n 'im," Dark Mike mumbled back, refusing to lift his face from his knees. "That don' mean nuttin'."

Raph looked on angrily as his brother continued to console Dark Mike. Didn't he get that their clones were evil?! They had kidnapped Cody for shell sakes! Why was Leo doing his best to comfort an evil turtle clone of his little—er, twin—brother?! "Dark Mike," Leo's soft voice drifted over as Alexa swung the pilot's chair around and jerked her thumb towards the back of the cruiser, a clear indication for Raph to move his shell. Raph grumbled as he reluctantly stomped over to take a seat beside Leo, all while his brother continued to speak. "Let me explain it this way. Raph, Don, and Mikey are my little brothers, but—"

"But he ain't littler th'n you," Dark Mike interrupted. He had not noticed Raph's approach due to the fact that he had figuratively glued his forehead to his knees, which was probably a good thing.

Leo didn't even have to stop and try to figure out whom Dark Mike meant, since it was obvious. Dark Mike seemed to think that saying the red clad turtle's name was the equivalent of saying Lord Voldemort in the _Harry Potter_ series. "I don't call them my 'little' brothers because they're 'littler' than me, Dark Mike."

Finally, Dark Mike raised his head, staring penetratingly at the blue clad turtle. "But that's jus' stupid. Why would ya's call 'em 'little' if they ain't?"

Leo sighed. "It's kinda a term of endearment, Dark Mike." When the other mutant gave him a blank look, he remembered whose clone he was talking to and realized that he should simplify his explanation. "They are my 'younger' brothers, but, to me, they're also my 'little' brothers. Calling a younger brother or sister 'little' doesn't mean that they're littler than you, although they usually are. It's sorta like a pet name, I guess. Dark Leo doesn't call you 'little brother' because you're smaller than him. He calls you that because he loves you."

Dark Mike snorted in contempt, reaching up to wipe his nose with the back of his hand. "Leo don' love ennybody."

At that moment, Alexa had finally managed to hotwire the cruiser, since the three older clones had "confiscated" her keypad and the purple one had reset the password after turning on her, and she hopped back into the pilot's chair. "And we have takeoff!" She crooned as the cruiser rumbled to life, the emergency lights flicking off only to be replaced by the much brighter normal ones as the console and screen came to life.

"I don' wanna go," Dark Mike mumbled. "They hurt me."

Leo could feel his heart melt just a little more as he listened to the smallest clone. He had never really stopped to think what it must be like. How often did they sit and contemplate their existence? Dark Mike had some serious psychological issues. Maybe . . . maybe he should try to talk to his dark clone. His clone did have ninety-nine percent of his DNA, so he should be able to reason with him . . . . But the dark turtle probably wouldn't appreciate the lecture, especially one concerning his little brother . . . . It was enough to make his brain hurt as he continued to rub the shoulder of the young turtle, his arm still over his shoulders.

"Dark Mike, is it?" The blue clad turtle jerked up with a start at the pleasant voice of the man who claimed to be Cody's long lost uncle. Leo cursed himself for letting himself get lost in his thoughts, since the doctor was currently kneeling in front of Mikey's clone and he hadn't even noticed his approach.

The yellow turtle had jerked up as well, staring at the human with wonder. "Yer human."

"Really?!" The doctor suddenly exclaimed, settling back on his haunches and looking from one arm to the other with wide eyes. "My word, I hadn't even noticed! Imagine that!"

Dark Mike looked confused before he picked up on the humor in the human's voice and began giggling quietly. "I meant that yer a human, and 'm not."

Now Darius was the one who was confused. "I was under the impression that the original turtles had a substantial amount of human DNA within their systems, which, using the wonderful process known as logical diagnosis, would suggest that you and your brothers do as well."

"What da hell ya talkin' 'bout, doctor?" Raph asked testily. "We ain't got a stitch of human DNA in us. We're full-blooded turtles."

"Red-eared sliders, to be exact," Leo added. "What gave you the impression that we had any human DNA in us?"

Now the doctor looked as if he were coming out of a trance as he suddenly stood. "Your test results. The DNA Reader detected an unexpected anomaly in all four of your blood systems, and it concluded that you all have two separate, completely independent sets of DNA in your systems.

Leo and Raph shared a long look before the former removed his arm from around Dark Mike's shoulders and the latter leapt nimbly to his feet. "Ya mind elaboratin' on that?" Raph demanded.

Darius blinked at him before taking a step back and turning on his heel. "Here, let me show you." Leo stood, giving Dark Mike one last pat on the shell, before following his brother over to a mounted computer set into the wall of electronics in the wall of the cruiser.

Darius removed a small device that resembled a flash drive from the pocket of his lab coat and showed it to the two turtles. "This is a copy of the original test results, before Vanderbilt forced me to tamper with them." He fit the device into a USB port in the wall. The computer screen hummed for a moment before it flickered to life, displaying a white screen with the printed results on it.

Leo cautiously stepped forward and quickly read through the results. They were identical to the original results, except for the last section that had read "One chronic illness detected" on theirs. On this copy, the last part read "Anomaly Detected."

"Here," Darius stepped forward and tapped the two words, which lit up blue and disappeared as the computer once again made the whirring sound. A moment later, the results page had faded, only to be replaced with another white page. "This is what I'm referring to."

Leo's and Raph's heads swam from just attempting to read the first paragraph of what just appeared to be numbers and formulas with a few random sentences thrown in. "We'll take your word for it," Leo spoke for the both of them.

"What da hell was in that TCRI ooze stuff, anyway?" Raph mumbled, massaging his suddenly sore temples.

Darius immediately perked up, turning to the two turtles with interest sparking in his eyes. "Did you say 'TCRI'? As in, the Utroms?" Both turtles nodded, shocked into silence. "Why, I used to work for them!" He suddenly paused. "Wait, you were mutated with the green ooze that was a byproduct of their Transmat that they were building back in your time when they were attempting to get back to their home planet?"

"Uh . . ." Leo's head was still swimming from attempting to read the second page, and he had to take the time to decipher the long question that the doctor had just asked before he could even attempt to answer it, " . . . yes?"

"Marvelous! There's your answer then!" Darius exclaimed, clearly thinking that the turtles knew what he was referring to. At their blank looks, his smile disappeared. "Oh, right. You're from the past. Well, to put it simply . . . . Once the Utroms discovered that this odd, green-glowing byproduct had mutagenic properties, they wanted to see if they could use it to turn an ordinary Earth animal into a sentient, human-like being. Unfortunately, the ooze alone would only cause them to become much larger and fiercer, and they had to put down many of their first attempts. Finally, one of the Utrom's top scientists realized that the best way to make an animal human-like would be to make it human. Since this could not be done directly, for obvious reasons, they simply decided to mix human DNA with that of their ooze. They put an ad in the paper, but many of the participants were just simply unfit for the experiment. That was when two of the Utroms had a run-in with a group of gang members from a gang called the Purple Dragons while out on patrol and they captured one of the youngest members, a young boy. They brought him back to headquarters, just to see if his DNA would be sufficient, and it turned out it was! What they didn't realize was that the boy had three older brothers who had been tailing them ever since they had taken their brother. After the boys had broken into the building and had quickly been subdued by a squadron of patrollers, the leader, Mortu, struck a deal with the boys, since all four of their DNA was compatible with the ooze and would serve the Utrom's purposes, that they would release them and their younger brother if they would give them substantial blood samples as payment. The boys agreed, and adding their DNA to the mixture caused the mutagen to give animals a conscious mind reminiscent of one of the boys they had taken the samples from."

Raph and Leo had listened to his whole speech, stunned once more into silence. They hadn't even reacted when he mentioned the Purple Dragons, which was odd since Raph normally at least growled whenever they were mentioned. As it were, they could only stare wide-eyed at the scientist as he subconsciously rubbed the back of his neck. "Is something wrong?"

The cruiser suddenly shuddered and the turtles were shocked out of their stupors. "We're here!" Alexa announced. "And I do believe we're expected."

The screen disappeared into that of a regular windshield as all occupants of the cruiser except Master Splinter, who was much too deep into his meditation to be disturbed, crept to the front and crowded around the control console.

The sight that met them was both terrifying and comical, although only one occupant could see the humor in it.

**AN: Hehe, I hope Dr. Klaas's (now officially known as Darius Dunn) two long speeches were understandable. I wanted to wrap this story up, but I still had so much left to reveal! I'll clarify something right now. I own the character that is called Darius Dunn in this story (as of right now), but I do not own the **_**name**_** Darius Dunn. On the flipside, I own the name Ludwig Vanderbilt (honestly, how do I come up with these things?), but I do not own the **_**character**_**. Do we all get it? Okay! Anyway, as I said at first, I'm hoping to update with the second to last chapter very soon. There **_**might**_** end up being **_**three**_** more if Chapter 13 just gets too long. By the way, I love reviews! Really, tell me what you thought! Do I need to clarify even more? I wanna know! Anyway, thanks for reading!**


	13. He's Alive!-Wait, You Already Knew That

**AN: I did promise I would finish this story, and I do keep my promises! I have this really bad habit of leaving something sitting for months (sometimes years) before I get the initiative to pick it up again. Luckily, it didn't take me **_**that**_** long to finish this! There's not much point in apologizing, since I know I'm not the only author whose life has just gotten in the way. Ah, well. On to more important matters. Thank you to everybody who reviewed! Um, I can't remember if I did get any reviews, but thank you to anybody who did! I'm dead tired right now, so sorry if this author's note doesn't make much sense. Anyway, on to the story. Enjoy this chapter! P.S As before, any grammatical or spelling "mistakes" within dialogue is to show how the character says the word, not that I can't spell to save my life.**

**Disclaimer: Almost forgot this! I do not own Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, Splinter, Cody, Torbin Zixx, or the dark turtles. I also do not own the name Darius Dunn, although I do own the **_**character**_** named Darius Dunn (formerly named Dr. Klaas) in this fic. I also own Alexa Rodriguez, the nicknames for the dark turtles, the name Ludwig Vanderbilt but not the **_**character**_** with that name, and the basic plot. Anything I do not own is currently owned by Nickelodeon, except for the dark turtles, Torbin Zixx, and the character known as Ludwig Vanderbilt in this fic. They are owned by 4Kids, channel through which the 2k3 cartoon was aired.**

**He's Alive!—Wait, you already Knew That**

Losing consciousness is never a pleasant experience. Having the life of a ninja turtle with more enemies than he cared to count tends to increase the chances that one will have such an experience. One turtle can testify to this fact as he struggled to regain consciousness. The last thing he remembers is falling from the sky and falling prey to the blackness encroaching on his consciousness, and then . . . nothing.

When he did finally manage to lift his heavy eyelids less than half a centimeter, the bright light above his head seared his eyeballs and he quickly dropped them once more. He groaned, managing to twitch the fingers of his left hand, but was unable to move much more than that.

"Donnie?" A breathy voice above him sounded like the blare of a subway train and he groaned once more. The voice above him did not take the hint. "Donnie, can you hear me? Donnie, speak to me!"

"Stop!" Donnie murmured almost inaudibly, his words slurring in his groggy state. "I's wanna s'eep!"

"Donatello!" A sharp pain erupted in his cheek, and the purple-clad turtle sat up with a jerk, his ninja senses kicking in as they spurred his tired muscles into action. Without fully realizing what he was doing, he had his assailant by the wrist and had thrown him over his legs, twisting his wrists painfully behind his back.

"Geez, Don!" The assailant wheezed. "Remind me never to slap you again!"

It took a moment, but Donnie's tired brain was finally able to comprehend just who he had thrown over his knees, and it tiredly sent a signal to his hands to let go. Unfortunately, his hands were feeling particularly obstinate that day, and chose to ignore the command.

Donnie cursed. It took some effort, but his brain was finally able to bully his hands into submission. "I'mma sowwy, Cothy!"

Cody slipped off the turtle's thighs with a grunt, falling to the ground clumsily. He watched his friend warily, but worriedly. Donatello was _not_ keen on swearing, and was even less keen on inarticulate speech. Dark Don had assured him that the purple-clad turtle had suffered no brain damage, but here was a great deal of evidence to suggest otherwise.

Thankfully, Cody was a boy genius, and it only took him about five seconds to realize what the problem was. He dashed away, searching frantically through the junk strewn all over Dark Don's foldable metal table that he had dubbed his "Workshop." His frantic search yielded results, and he eagerly dashed back to his friend.

Upon feeling the small capsule being shoved between his lips and into his mouth, Donatello instinctively swallowed, and the effect was practically instantaneous. The chemicals within the capsule awoke his brain with a start, and the turtle suddenly became fully aware of his surroundings.

"Did you just give me a stimulant?" Donnie asked, turning an accusing eye on his friend. He was a ninja. Ninja did not rely on chemicals to rejuvenate their bodies. Even he, an engineer and lover of science, did not like taking pills.

Cody smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "You were pretty loopy there, Don. Ya kinda judo threw me and nearly snapped my wrist in half."

Donnie folded his arms, pouting in clear denial of that claim. But he was also pouting because he couldn't for the life of him remember what had happened after he had taken off in the HoverShell. He knew that he and Leo had, had a horrible argument—he decided to push the emotions that thought arose within him to the side as he analyzed his situation from the eyes of a mere observer and not a partaker of the actual events—and he had stormed off like a child, declaring to himself that he would show that "no good, know-it-all, bossy brother of his that he could handle himself!" And that would be the censored version.

He looked around himself, hoping that his surroundings could give him a clue, and he suddenly got quite a shock. "Where are we?" He asked breathlessly, even though he had a fairly good idea where they were.

Cody sighed. "Promise you won't freak out?" Donnie fixed him with a muted glare. "We're kinda at—thedarkturtleslair."

Donnie stared at him, expression unmoving. "Come again?"

"I said 'thedarkturtleslair'."

"Would you kindly slow down? I didn't quite catch that."

Cody sighed, squeezing his eyes shut and rolling them to the ceiling. "We're at the dark turtles' lair, all right?" Donnie simply nodded, Cody's statement having only confirmed what he had suspected all along. "Nardo and Tello brought you back here after Nardo rescued you from the wrecked HoverShell—"

"Hold up," Donnie held up one three-fingered hand, staring at the boy oddly, "who the heck are Nardo and Tello?"

Cody laughed nervously. "Oh, sorry. I kept coaching myself to keep calling them Dark Whatever after you woke up, but I just forgot. You see, Tello—sorry, I mean Dark Don—decided that they needed new names that didn't reflect yours. So he decided to take the _last_ parts of your names instead of the first for the nicknames. Nardo—Dark Leo, argh!—wasn't too keen on the idea, but I guess he didn't think it was worth arguing with Te—Dark Don over. He, Tello, and Phael went up to meet your brothers and Master Splinter."

Donnie was finding it quite amusing that the boy genius kept saying the wrong names, and he was struggling not to smile, when he fully realized what his friend had just said. "Leo too?" He asked faintly.

Cody had no idea about his and Leo's fight—for obvious reasons—and he must have missed the hint of apprehension in his friend's voice. "I would assume so. Nardo said he about ripped his head off on the phone—metaphorically speaking, of course."

Donnie's reply was cut off by the loud bantering echoing down the sewer corridors as a very familiar—some not-so-familiar—group of people entered

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

And now we pick up where we left off in the last chapter . . .

The very large, brightly colored mutant turtles glared up at the occupants of the cruiser with animosity in their eyes. It was hard to tell whether they were having murderous thoughts towards said occupants, or if they just always looked that way. The red one seemed to be only copying the other two, but his face lit up and he waved when he caught sight of the yellow mutant hunkered down inside the cruiser.

Dark Mike's eyes widened. "Did he just _wave_ at me?"

Leo laid a hand on his shoulder and squeezed as best as he could. "I told you your brothers care about you, Dark Mike."

Dark Mike frowned, but he returned the wave, although with much less gusto. Leo took the yellow turtle by the elbow and towed him to the door of the cruiser. Alexa was eagerly awaiting them, her emerald green eyes shimmering with malicious intent. Leo decided that he'd better keep an eye on her after they got down to their old lair, or else she might try something drastic.

"Shall we then?!" Alexa sing-songed as she hit the button with a clenched fist and sprung from the cruiser, trotting towards the waiting turtles as if they hadn't tied her up and locked her in a closet. Master Splinter had to drag Mikey by the elbow, with an "encouraging" shove from Raph.

"Where is my son?" Master Splinter demanded as he tapped his way over to the waiting turtles. The feral tone of his voice startled the dark turtles, and they decided they'd better tread carefully.

"He is fine, sir," Dark Leo spoke up, bowing to the old rat. Splinter looked surprised, but he bowed back. The dark turtles had never before shown any signs of upholding Japanese culture, but perhaps they had been reading up on the subject?

"_Konichiwa_," Dark Don greeted, copying the bow. "Is our brother well?"

The over-formality was a sure sign of the thick tension between the two very different groups. The dark turtles were certainly not Splinter's favorite people, but they had his son in their custody, and he would not endanger him.

Raph and Mikey were silent for once as they joined their master, standing on either side of him. Raph centered most of his animosity on his dark clone, but Dark Raph was too busy craning his neck to watch as Leo led a reluctant Dark Mike their way to notice.

Darius brought up the rear, rehearsing under his breath just how he was planning to tell Cody that he was his uncle. "Cody, I'm your uncle." He shook his head. "No, no, no . . . . Cody, there's something I need to tell you . . . . No, no, no, the boy barely knows me!"

"Hello, boys!" Alexa greeted, flashing a wicked grin the clones' way. Dark Leo growled, but made the wise decision to not respond. "Nice day, isn't it?" She purred, a challenge in her eyes.

"Where's Donnie?" Leo interrupted Dark Leo's scathing reply, still holding Dark Mike by the elbow. Dark Leo swung towards him, his expression not changing when he caught sight of his trembling brother. Leo narrowed his eyes and glared at him, warning him to speak wisely.

Dark Leo slowly focused his gaze on Leo, his lime green eyes flashing. "Your brother is fine. We left him asleep with Cody."

"What of Darius Dunn?" Darius spoke up, hurrying forward. He looked anxious and his accusing gaze made the turtle he addressed bristle.

"Do you really believe that we would leave a defenseless boy and an unconscious turtle alone if we at all suspected that they could be discovered by our 'master'?" Dark Leo hissed, his eyes narrowing. "Give us some credit, _human_."

"He is justified in his worry," Splinter spoke up, striding forward and shooing the large turtle away with his cane. "I suggest we cease with this senseless banter and head to your lair. I am anxious to see my son."

Dark Leo nodded once before turning back towards Leo and Dark Mike. "We will take charge of our brother from here." He held out his hand, focusing hard eyes on the smaller clone.

Dark Mike stiffened, but a gentle shove from Leo made him stumble towards his brother. He glanced back once, but turned back and took his brother's hand when Leo nodded. Dark Leo's eyes flashed as he possessively tugged his brother to his other side so he would be farther away from Leo. "Follow us," he growled.

Dark Don lifted up the manhole cover with one hand and motioned everybody down, glaring hatefully at Leo's back as said turtle leapt down. Dark Mike's obvious attachment to the blue-clad turtle had not gone unnoticed.

Alexa was the last one down, batting her eyelashes flirtatiously at the purple mutant as she dropped down, her feet making almost no sound as she landed. Dark Don shuddered involuntarily as he dropped down as well, bringing the lid down with him.

The five-minute trek through the tunnels was silent and tense, the dark clones discreetly distancing themselves from their companions. Alexa had wormed her way into the lead, glancing back once in awhile to gaze coldly at the dark clones before turning back and striking on ahead. Closely following the dark clones was Master Splinter, his urge to see his son giving him speed. Mikey and Raph trailed a few feet behind him, muttering to each other about how much they despised the older dark clones.

"You do realize," Leo hissed from behind them. "That, technically, Dark Don is the youngest among them."

Raph scowled at him, having to walk backwards to do so. "No,_ technically_, Dark Mike's the youngest. Dark Don is only the youngest in theory."

"I'm pretty sure it's the other way around," Leo countered.

"_What_ are you two talking about?" Mikey grumbled, turning back and glowering at them both. "I'm _trying_ to decide what to say to Don when we see him!"

"Whateva ya do," Raph threatened. "If it is in iny way supposed ta be funny, I'mma gonna strangle you."

"We were _talking_," Leo interrupted Mikey's smart reply, "about what Dr. Kla—I mean, Dr. Dunn was telling us back on the cruiser. Something about the Utroms and our DNA and . . . . You know, I can't even remember half of what he said now."

"Of course not," Raph grumbled. "The guy was talkin' in science-y jargon most o' the time. Couldn' follow a single thing he said."

"Excuse me?" Darius spoke up from where he was bringing up the rear, startling the three ninjas, which embarrassed them to no end since ninjas should _not_ be that easily startled. "What I said is that you four have the DNA of the four young human boys that the Utroms took DNA from in order to modify the mutagen. That DNA was frozen and, therefore, did not age. The 'physical' ages displayed on your test results were the ages of the DNA of the boys at the time it was taken. In all actuality, it is this DNA that makes up who you are—your turtle DNA, which is where your birthdates and such came from, only determines your _physical_ make-up, and only partly of that. So, therefore, I would say that your 'physical' ages are the most reliable in deciding a birth order and such."

"What did he just say?" Mikey muttered to Raph.

"Basically?" Raph muttered back. "Yer the youngest agin. Congratulations!"

"Guys!" Leo interrupted with a hiss. "I think we're here!"

"Congratulations ta you too!" Raph grunted. "It ain't like we haven' walked this path a hundred million times back in the past and know it by heart or anything."

Leo stared blankly at him and deadpanned. "Your wit amazes me."

Raph shrugged. "I'm jus' that kinda guy."

"Come _on_, guys!" Mikey called from where he stood at the entrance to the dark turtles' lair. "I think Donnie's awake!"

Raph lunged forward after Mikey but screeched to a halt when he realized Leo had frozen. Mentally slapping himself, he backtracked and looped an arm around Leo's shoulders. "Don's an understanding guy, Leo. He'll forgive ya. But draggin' yer feet ain't gonna get the apology over iny faster."

Leo's gaze slid up to his red-clad brother. "Are you sure you can't read my mind?"

Raph shrugged as he removed his arm and used it to slap his brother on the back. "Shuddup 'n get yer posterior through that door. We have a brother ta see."

Leo nodded once before taking a deep breath and striding forward, hurrying through the doorway with Raph on his heels. He spotted Donnie sitting up on a foldable cot in the far corner of the room, and his protective instincts took over as he broke into a jog, wary of startling his brother by approaching any faster.

"How are you feeling?" He asked guardedly as he neared his clearly fatigued brother.

Donnie's eyes darted to him before shifting to stare at the floor. "'M okay, I guess," he muttered, drawing swirls on his knee with his finger.

"Dude!" Mikey laughed, oblivious as always to the tension blanketing the room. "You're alive!" He tackled his hapless brother in a hug, and it took the combined efforts of both Leo and Raph to pry him off.

"Stand down, Cap'n Cuddly!" Raph snarled as he yanked his twin back by the arm. "The guy just narrowly survived a crash. I don' think glomping him is the most intelligent thing ta do at th' moment."

Mikey stuck his tongue out and promptly leapt out of his red-clad brother's reach as Donnie and Leo stood in awkward silence. Well, Leo stood. Donnie was still far too exhausted to attempt standing.

"You were right," Donnie finally worked up the nerve to break the silence, startling his brother.

"I was?" Leo blinked. "I mean!—about what?"

Donnie sighed and shifted on the cot, tiredly rubbing his temples as he clarified. "I tried to commit suicide, Leo. I really thought that there wasn't any point in living any longer if I was going to die soon anyway. So I just . . . gave up." Donnie slid his gaze up, his eyes brimming with unshed tears. "I'm so sorry, Leo! This is all my fault!"

Leo's analytical side was busy analyzing the situation, while his brotherly side was telling his brain to shut up and just wing it. After an awkward silence where Donnie hiccupped from attempting not to cry and Leo fidgeted and had a mental battle with himself, the brotherly side won out and Leo seated himself beside his brother.

"Hey, now," he spoke softly, wrapping an arm around the distraught turtle and squeezing him in a one-armed embrace. "You and I both know that's not true. I'm just as guilty, if not more so, than you are."

"B-b-but, L-Leo," Donnie hiccupped, wiping hurriedly at the corners of his eyes. "I tried t-t-to—"

"Oh, shell, Don!" Leo suddenly exclaimed. "I'm such an idiot! I completely forgot! You don't have AIDS!"

The announcement was so unexpected for the other turtle that he could only sit in dumbfounded silence for a moment before slowly turning and staring wide-eyed at his brother. "What?" He croaked.

"You do not have AIDS, Donatello," Leo repeated. "Long story short, Dr. Klaas is actually Darius Dunn and he messed with our test results so that it would say you had AIDS because the other Darius Dunn told him to, and he picked AIDS because it seemed the most improbable or something, and—"

"Leo?" Donnie interrupted, still hiccupping periodically.

Leo blinked. "Yeah?"

"All I heard was that I don't have AIDS."

Leo broke down into a fit of uncontrollable laughter and grabbed his brother in a suffocating embrace. "I'll tell you later! You wouldn't _believe_ how many crazy things I've heard today!"

Donnie smiled coyly in reply as he returned the embrace. "Try me."

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

During this in a corner where Cody had retreated, with Darius trailing him trying to work up the courage to approach his nephew, to give the turtles some privacy . . .

"Cody?" Cody swung around in terror, having recognized the voice, and brandished his fists. The older man with graying hair and twinkling blue eyes smiled at him. "Hello, son."

Cody's eyes flicked between Leo and Donnie on the cot, Mikey and Raph wrestling in another corner with Splinter shouting out instructions, and the man in front of him in confusion. "You attacked me."

The man's smile melted into a dark frown as he sighed, his shoulders sagging and his eyes darkening. "I am truly sorry for that, my boy. Vanderbilt was monitoring me, and I could not allow him to discover my true identity."

"Heh?"

Darius glanced up and smiled at him once more, his eyes heavy with sadness. "Hello, Cody. My name is Dr. Darius Dunn, and I am your uncle."

"What?!" Cody exclaimed after a moment where he was too stunned to speak, attracting the attention of the turtles and Splinter. "You know, it's bad enough that I have to contend with one psychopath as an uncle! The last thing I need is a second one that's _pretending_ to be my uncle!"

"He speaks the truth, young one," Splinter interrupted, shuffling across the room and resting a furry hand on the boy's elbow. "To put it simply, he has been gone for many years and just recently returned to find the man you know of as Darius Dunn had stolen his identity."

"His real name is Ludwig Vanderbilt," Darius explained. "His scheme has been a detailed one, I'll give him that. When your parents died," he choked up a little at that part, something that did not get past Cody, "he moved in like a hawk for the kill to impersonate me and get himself named your legal guardian. Once that was done, he had a lot of work to do to work up his reputation in the company. As long as you were under his control, there was no need to get rid of you."

"But when we came along," Leo added from the cot, "and Cody started becoming independent, he decided he needed to remove Cody from the picture?"

Darius nodded. "I would assume so. I'm a biologist, you see, and I had been travelling the world. I didn't even find out that my little sister had died until I returned." He sighed and reached out a trembling hand to rest it on Cody's shoulder. "Forgive me, dear boy."

Cody watched the nearly crying man before him for a moment before gazing individually at each turtle and Master Splinter. Leo and Splinter gave him encouraging nods, while Mikey grinned and gave him two thumbs-up's, Donnie smiled weakly and shrugged in hopeless confusion, and Raph grunted vaguely. Slowly, Cody returned his gaze to the man before him and did an unexpected thing.

He surged forward and threw himself into Darius's arms, burying his face in the man's chest. It would be an understatement to say Darius was surprised, but it only took a few moments for him to recover and return the embrace enthusiastically.

Cody lifted his face from the man's shirtfront so he could speak. "You have no idea how happy I am to hear that, that man isn't really my uncle."

Darius laughed and fondly smoothed the boy's hair back. "Has anybody ever told you that you are the spitting image of your father?"

Cody grinned and pulled away. "No, actually." His smile suddenly disappeared. "I barely remember them. Whenever I would ask Unc—I mean, Vanderbilt about my parents, he would always have somewhere else he had to be. I used to think he was just a man my parents taught me to call 'uncle,' but this makes _so_ much more sense."

"I'll say!" Raph butted in. "He won' kill ya if he sits on ya!" Everybody was quiet for a moment, turning as one to stare at Raph in bewilderment for the completely irrelevant comment, before bursting into laughter.

Darius wiped away a tear before slowly sweeping his eyes over his companions. His face suddenly fell and panic overtook his features. "Where's Alexa?!"

Everybody immediately stopped laughing, turning to the person next to them as if they thought he would have the answer.

"Oh no!" Darius breathed, pulling away from the concerned Cody and sprinting for the door at the far end of the lair. With some effort, he managed to throw it open and burst through the door. "Alexa!"

He had arrived just in time to see the madwoman draw her knife across Vanderbilt's neck. The man spluttered for a moment and fell forward, blood gushing from the open wound so rapidly that Darius knew there was no hope for him. "What do you think you're doing?!"

Alexa calmly wiped the blood from the blade on her victim's coattails and smiled coyly up at the wide-eyed man. "He had it coming. Normally, I kill people regardless of their backgrounds and never for personal reasons. This time, I can honestly say that he deserved it."

"This is not the way to bring justice!" Darius cried, rushing forward and kneeling before the man. He grabbed Vanderbilt's coattails and attempted to use them to stem the blood flow, but it was no use. Alexa's knife was wickedly sharp, and it had cleanly cut through the skin all the way down to the muscle. Without proper equipment, it was doubtable he could save the man even if he did manage to stem the blood flow.

"Who said anything about justice?" Alexa giggled insanely. "I would call this vengeance. Toodles!"

"Alexa!" Darius screamed, but he had more important things to do than stop the maniac from escaping out into the rest of the sewers.

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The sewers were dark, slimy, and incredibly damp. Running through them was really not a smart idea, but she had to get away before Darius could alert those turtle things to what she had done.

She spat into the sewer water she was currently standing ankle-deep in, imagining it was the face of one of those _things_. Figures that goody-goody would want to spare the scumbag Vanderbilt despite all he had done.

Alexa didn't normally deal with justice. She didn't care whom she killed as long as somebody signed her paycheck, but this situation had been different. Something about that man just made her blood boil. She didn't know what it was, but slicing his throat open with her knife had given her a thrill she didn't usually experience after doing a job.

Because this hadn't been a job. It had been an act solely out of her loathing for the demon formerly known as Ludwig Vanderbilt, evil incarnate. She spat once more into the water, this time imagining it was the face of her long dead victim.

"Lexi?" She skidded to a halt, sending a spray of stagnant sewer water several feet out before her. Even without turning, she knew who the speaker was. _What_ he was doing in the sewers she had no idea.

"What are you doing here?" The speaker continued as he stepped out of a tunnel branching off from the one she had been running down. She couldn't see down it due to the lack of light, but she was already guessing it was a hideout or something. That would explain why he had never been caught.

"I could ask you the same thing," Alexa replied coldly, fingering the still slightly bloody knife she'd used to end Vanderbilt's life tucked into her utility belt.

Zixx frowned as he shifted, looking up and down the tunnel before turning to his sister. "I'm a wanted man. What's your excuse?"

Alexa scowled. "The same old Zixx. Can't stand being in the dark, can ya? If I don't feel like spilling my guts to you, _little brother_, then I sure as hell ain't going to."

Zixx watched his sister, a longing look in his eyes. "Lexi, what happened to you?"

"What the hell's that supposed ta mean?" Alexa snapped, startled by the out of context question.

"You changed," Zixx continued, his voice cracking with emotion. "You used to be my idol, you know. You and me, we used to go everywhere together . . . ." His voice trailed off as he looked away from his sister.

"I got news for ya, little brother," Alexa snarled, taking a menacing step forward, her hand tightening on the hilt of her knife. "_Life_ happened to me. I realized that there's a whole cruel world out there that likes to make itself look like a friendly place. People pretendin' ta be your friend when they're secretly plotting to destroy any reputation that you got. People are cruel, little brother, just like life. I woulda thought you woulda known that by now."

"Ever since Dally died—" Zixx tried once more, desperate to tear down the wall between him and his big sister.

"Don't EVEN, Randolph Rodriguez!" Alexa snarled. "Or should I say, Torbin Zixx? Somethin' wrong with the name our parents gave you?"

Zixx shrugged. "Dunno. Somethin' wrong with yours?"

Alexa snorted, rolling her eyes. "What, Black Panther? That's just like, my code name or somethin'. And don't change the subject! You ain't got no right talking about _my_ little sister that way!"

"She was my little sister too," Zixx replied testily.

"Newsflash, asshole!" Alexa hissed threateningly. "Ya lost the right to call her that when ya went and got her killed!"

"I'm sorry, Lexi!" Zixx cried, beginning to tremble and tear up at the quickly spiraling out of control "conversation." "I never meant for any of this to happen! I was a stupid teenager!"

"Yer still stupid!" Alexa was on a roll now. "Especially if ya think I wanna talk to a murderer like you."

That stilled Zixx, who suddenly shuddered and dropped his eyes from his sister's rage-filled ones. "You never allowed yourself to grieve, Lexi."

"What da hell is that supposed ta mean?!"

"Jus' what I said," Zixx murmured. "You never allowed yourself to grieve, and that grief has been eating you up inside. Ya need to let it _go_, Lexi, before it consumes you."

Alexa's breath suddenly hitched and she dropped her gaze, tears filling them of their own accord. "That ain't got nothin' ta do wit' it!" Her emotions were causing her heavy Brooklyn accent to become more pronounced, something that was quite funny coupled with the soft tone of her original, the sixty-year-late Oroku Karai.

Zixx hurried to his sister's side and grasped her arm with one hand while he used to other to tilt her chin up. "I'm here for you, Lexi. What if I promised to give up smuggling? Would you give up assassinating? We can make a new start together, just you and me. Please, big sister."

"Where would we go?" Alexa murmured, unconsciously leaning into her brother's embrace.

Zixx smiled, tears of joy filling his eyes as he wrapped his arms around his sister. "It doesn't matter. We're family, Lexi. As long as we're together, nothing else matters." He was opening his mouth to say more, when he suddenly hissed in pain, his hands moving to his abdomen as he fell to his knees.

Alexa stepped back, yanking her now twice-bloodied knife out as she did so. The temporary tourniquet now removed, the blood began to trickle from the shallow wound, and Zixx gasped in pain. "So sorry to disappoint you, little brother," Alexa purred, tucking the now slippery-with-blood knife back into her belt and taking a step back.

"Why, Lexi?" Zixx gagged, attempting but failing to stem the blood flow from the open wound as he crouched in the stagnant sewer water, blinking up at his sister.

Alexa turned ever so slowly and knelt, reaching out to tilt her brother's chin up with a perfectly manicured fingernail. "That was for my little sister." Zixx's eyes widened before the realization set in and his gaze dropped, filled with regret. "Have a nice slow, painful death." She hissed as she stood, reaching down to wipe her knees before turning to go.

"I still love you, Lexi," Zixx whimpered, closing his eyes in acceptance and letting his hand drop into the water, allowing the blood to flow unimpeded from the wound.

Alexa smiled cruelly and began to walk away without turning back. "That's nice, brother dear, because I still hate you."

"And now," she purred after she had rounded the corner, leaving her little brother to die. "I shall fulfill my destiny."

She laughed evilly, pulling the knife from her belt and touching the blood-soaked tip to her lips. "I shall succeed Karai, and become the new Shredder."

Zixx closed his eyes for the last time, settling himself down against the wall, listening to the evil, crazed laughter of the woman he had thought was his sister.

The pain of betrayal was much worse than the pain of the wound as he gave into the blackness threatening to consume him.

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"Will he make it?" He had trouble focusing on the blurry shape above him as he faded in and out of consciousness. Somehow, his hand had moved to once again grip the wound in his abdomen, and he hissed in pain when his thumb accidentally poked through the clean, albeit shallow, hole.

"I'm not sure." Another voice spoke. "The wound isn't very deep, but he's already lost quite a bit of blood. Who knows how long he's been lying out here?" He finally realized that it was this person who was pressing something to his wound around his hand. He managed to wrench his hand from the wound to allow the speaker to do a much better job of stemming the blood flow.

"Do ya think _she_ did this?" A third voice demanded. His voice was rough and dark, seeping with animosity.

"Why are we bothering to try 'n save him anyway?" A fourth voice asked. "He's tricked us into breaking the law not once—but twice!"

"He's still a person, Mikey." The first voice spoke again. "And we protect people. If he survives, he will have to pay for what he has done in a court of law, but it isn't our place to judge him."

"We're doing the best we can." The second voice spoke to him as its owner reached out to run a hand down his hot face. "Try your best to stay with us," he spoke quietly. Oddly enough, his skin felt rough, almost like sandpaper, as the nimble fingers peeled back his clothing to further reveal the wound.

He coughed deeply once before he slumped back and left his fate in the hands of these kind strangers—whoever they were.

**AN: I can probably point out that my other story hasn't been updated in **_**two**_** months, so this wasn't too bad. I debated whether or not to put a warning about character death in the first author's note, but I decided nobody would care if I killed Darius Dunn (a.k.a., Ludwig Vanderbilt) anyway. I will try my hardest not to take a month to upload the last chapter, but I'm not making a promise I'm not sure I can keep. Review if you like. Thanks for reading!**

**P.S. For anybody who's wondering about you-know-what, I realized I was making Alexa way too soft . . . . She's an assassin . . . and a psychopath. And, no, I am **_**not**_** promising a sequel, but there is a **_**remote**_** possibility there may be one. If not, it's all up to your imagination . . .**


	14. The End?

**AN: Wow, I was not expecting this to be done so soon. I got four reviews for the last chapter! Yay! I don't say this a lot, but I really do appreciate you all! Well, this is it. The last chapter. I want to address a review I received from ShadowCat2428 before moving on. She (or he) wants to know what the turtles' ages are. Okay! The way I see it, they were fifteen at the beginning of the series, and I'm guessing about two years have gone by, by the FF season, so they're supposed to be seventeen. The physical ages of the test results only apply to the human DNA that made the turtles into sentient beings. (See any of Darius Dunn's long speeches in the last chapter and the chapter before it if you have no idea what I'm talking about. They're somewhere in there.) She (he) also wants to know if they really are brothers. Through the turtle DNA, Mikey and Raph are twins, Leo is their half-brother, and Donnie is unrelated. Through the **_**human**_** DNA, they are all brothers. Make sense? The birth order I tend to lean towards in this story goes: Leo, Mikey & Raph as twins a few minutes apart, and Donnie. The other goes: Leo, Donnie, Raph, & Mikey, in case you're wondering. Either is correct according to this storyline. Anyway, enjoy the last chapter to this story!**

**Disclaimer: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, and Master Splinter currently belong to Nickelodeon. All characters associated with FF season of 2k3 series belong to 4Kids. I own the characters named Darius Dunn (formerly Dr. Klaas) and Alexa Rodriguez, the new names of the dark turtles, and the basic plot. (FYI, feel free to use the names I used. I don't care.)**

**The End?**

"Come on, come on!" Cody muttered as he stuck his tongue between his teeth, clutching the wrench in his hands tightly as he carefully turned a loose screw. "Work!" He glanced back at the portal when it began to spark, hope swelling in his heart until . . .

"Cowabunga!" A certain orange-clad turtle burst through the door and the portal immediately fizzed out. Cody stared at it in disbelief. Really?

"Oops!" Michelangelo chuckled when he realized what had happened. "Um, is that normal?"

"With you, nothing's normal," Donatello muttered as he stomped in from Cody's cluttered storage room carrying a large box in his arms. His face was covered with grime, but Mikey made the wise decision not to point it out as his brother dropped the box at Cody's feet.

"It probably wouldn't have worked anyway," Cody sighed, laying aside his wrench and swiping a hand across his forehead. "Have you seen Tello? Maybe he can help us."

Donatello rolled his eyes at the mention of his clone. "He's been holed up in his room all morning, working on his 'experiment.' I tell you, he's taking the saying 'Old habits die hard' to a whole new level."

"You guys look beat," Mikey suddenly proclaimed, sauntering over and looping an arm over Donnie's shoulders. "I made pizza!" He sing-songed, wiggling his fingers in front of Donnie's beak.

Cody smiled at the thought of Mikey's specially made, homemade pizza, his stomach growling already. "Sounds good to me."

"But I just found those parts you wanted!" Donnie whined, sounding uncharacteristically childish as he pointed at the box, which was filled with various odds and ends left over from failed experiments, to make his point.

"Dude," Mikey grumbled. "You're taking this whole being the youngest thing _way_ too far."

"I thought you were the youngest?" Cody asked as he began sifting through the box to appease the purple-clad turtle, since he didn't have the heart to tell him he probably no longer needed anything inside of it.

Mikey tapped his chin in thought. "Well, technically, we have two different birth orders: Leo, me, Raph, and Donnie-boy here," Donnie glared, "and Leo, Donnie, Raph, and me. The only one who doesn't change is Leo."

"Lucky," Donnie grumbled. Cody and Mikey shared a worried look behind the disgruntled turtle's back as they stood as one.

"Well!" Cody exclaimed, grabbing a dirty rag off the control console to the portal and wiping his hands on it. "Can't keep the pizza waiting!"

"I highly doubt the pizza cares," Donnie grumbled as he stomped towards the door to the lab and disappeared down the hallway.

"What is _up _with him?" Cody asked the orange-clad turtle once his friend had disappeared. "He's been acting like that for three months now."

"Yeah," Mikey agreed. "Ever since that whole mess with him thinking he had AIDS. I'm starting to think that whole testing thing was a really bad idea."

Cody rolled his eyes when Mikey wasn't looking. _Starting_ to think? "Well, I guess we'd better hurry or Sir Grumps-a-lot will barge back in here and demand to know what's taking us so long."

"_Please_ tell me you didn't just call Donnie what I think you just called him."

"What? Sir Grumps-a-lot? I thought it was funny," Cody protested as he followed the turtle out the doorway. "You don't think so?"

"Just leave the jokes to me. 'Kay, kid?" Mikey teased playfully as he reached back to further mess up Cody's already disheveled hair.

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"Remind me how I got roped into this again?" Nardo grumbled to his original as he spooned pizza sauce onto the circle of dough before him. It didn't help that he was also wearing the now pizza-sauce-splattered apron and chef's hat that his little brother had talked him into wearing, as he had talked him into helping make the pizzas at all.

"You just can't say 'no' to those eyes," Leo replied as he painstakingly made his dough into a perfect circle, eying it critically for any imperfections.

"Now, pupils," Angelo was saying as he stood at the head of the island, wearing his own chef's hat and much-too-small apron as he stirred a bowl of pizza dough in his hands. They had already made three pizzas, but the dark clones had very large appetites, and the pizzas weren't terribly large to begin with. "You must become one with the pizza. _Be_ the pizza!"

Nardo was thinking of about eleven different ways he could kill his little brother as he began smoothing the sauce over the dough with the large spoon in his hands, something that was very difficult with hands as large as his.

"Can I help?" Phael stuck his head into the kitchen, hope lighting up his face. He was sporting a large black eye from an earlier sparring match against his original, but his happy disposition had not been disturbed by it.

"No!" The three other turtles chorused without even bothering to check who it was. Phael was under strict orders to never step foot into the kitchen again after an incident two months ago that will not be relayed because of the sheer horror of it.

Phael pouted but withdrew his head, his large stomping audible to the three turtles' ears even from a distance.

"Howdy, fellow pizza-makers!" Mikey greeted as he suddenly barreled into the room, Cody following a few steps behind him at a normal pace. He wouldn't have made it to the kitchen nearly as fast if Mikey hadn't dragged him the entire way.

"Daddy!" Angelo exclaimed, dropping his bowl on the counter and tackling Mikey in a hug. Leo and Nardo chortled at the youngest clone's exclamation. Much to Michelangelo's chagrin, his clone had dubbed him "Daddy" very soon after they had returned to the penthouse, and absolutely refused to be corrected.

"Angelo," Leo softly reprimanded, continuing to poke at the edges of the dough as he looked the yellow turtle in the eye.

"Sorry," Angelo immediately apologized, leaping to his feet and picking Mikey up. "I keep forgetting I'm so much bigger than you!" He set Mikey down and brushed him off. "There, all better!"

"Thanks," Mikey grumbled as he wriggled away from his clone and turned towards his oldest brother, flashing him a thankful smile. Leo only nodded in return as he continued to "perfect" his pizza dough.

"Oh, for the love of anchovies!" Nardo, who had a thing for the salty fish, suddenly exclaimed, having already finished sprinkling cheese over his dough. "It's done already!"

"It's lumpy!" Leo protested as he continued to smooth out the edges. "Can't you see?"

Nardo stared at the perfectly un-lumpy dough for several seconds before looking his original in the eye and proclaiming, "No."

Leo's shoulders stiffened and he attacked his dough with renewed vigor, determined that it be absolutely perfect. Mikey knew better than to argue with his oldest brother when he got into one of his "perfection" moods, so he left the kitchen in his clone's capable hands and pranced out into the main room.

He was met with an odd sight. His twin was standing with a game controller in his hands as Donnie's clone fussed over a cloth-covered lump, lecturing Raphael about whatever was under said lump. Apparently, Tello had decided to emerge from his cave and grace the rest of the world with his presence. "Ta da!" Tello exclaimed in excitement as Mikey approached, yanking the cloth off and presenting his "experiment" in one fluid motion.

Both Mikey and Raph stared at the contraption before them in confusion. Tello had already proved time and again that he wasn't nearly as smart as Donatello and did not possess his ingenuity for inventing. The—thing—before them looked like a conglomeration of loose parts screwed together with no real battle plan. However, Tello looked so proud of it that the older turtles didn't have the heart to crush his dreams of being an inventor.

"What is it?" Raph asked with forced curiosity. Even he didn't want to upset the clone. Besides Nardo, the other three clones had childish tendencies, and it wasn't unheard of, particularly for Angelo, for them to burst into tears or throw temper tantrums. Tello's tantrums generally involved big words that even he didn't know quite what they meant. Granted, Tello very rarely broke down into such childish behavior, but he wasn't above it either.

"It's a heat ray!" Tello proclaimed, his smile so wide it took over his entire face. Mikey and Raph stared at him blankly for long enough that Tello got the picture. "It really works!"

"We believe you/ya!" Mikey and Raph chorused when Tello reached for the contraption as if to prove his point by turning it on.

"Wasn't that already invented?" Raph asked, scratching his head in confusion as he stared at the thing in front of him.

"I made improvements!" The purple clone explained. When they still looked blank, he huffed in indignation and scooped the contraption up. "Fine then! I'll just show this to somebody who can _appreciate_ my ingenuity!"

"I 'preciate your whatchamacallit, Tello!" Phael exclaimed from where he was sitting cross-legged on the floor with a coloring book and various crayons spread out before him. He had proven to be quite the artist and, unfortunately, the coloring book and crayons were all Cody could find to give him to appease his artistic tendencies. Let's just say he had been expressing his talent on less appropriate places.

"Thank you, Phael!" Tello said, spinning on his heel and marching back towards his brother, dropping down on the floor beside him.

"Mikey?" Raph turned to his twin, a question burning in his mind. "If I had told you three months ago that we would be living side-by-side with our dark clones and we would be actually _not_ trying to kill each other, what would you have done?"

Mikey met his brother's stare for about ten seconds before they both broke down into uncontrollable laughter at the thought of the insanity of their current lives. Tello and Phael glanced over disapprovingly, but were much too absorbed in the "heat ray"/coloring book and crayons to do much else.

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The room was dark and smelled heavily of antiseptic as he entered, striding briskly towards the lump hunched over in the sterilized bed. "How are you feeling?" Donatello asked professionally, clapping his hands twice to turn on the lights so he could see to administer his patient's medication.

The shell of the man in the bed turned over slowly and blinked up at his caretaker. Torbin Zixx looked like death itself, his skin now a sickly gray and his once mischievous eyes now devoid of life. He was dressed in a gray hospital gown, his body now bony underneath it.

Although his physical wound had healed a long time ago, the mental wounds brought about by his sister's betrayal had wormed themselves so deeply into his subconscious that they had begun to affect his health. Donatello had made himself his sole caretaker, declaring that he was the only one with enough medical knowledge to be able to properly care for the man.

"Fine," Zixx croaked, his voice deep and hoarse from being unused. He only spoke when spoken to, and never much more than two words. Donatello was hard-pressed to even truly assess his condition, since the man never said anything that would indicate he was not in perfect health.

Donnie sighed as he held the syringe up to the light, checking that he had the correct amount of antidepressant. When he was certain, he scooped up a wipe and marched over to his patient. Zixx said nothing as the turtle wiped a spot on his arm clean and injected the drugs into his system.

"There," Donnie said as he withdrew the needle, wiping it clean and laying it on another table for later sterilization. "Have you had any more dreams?"

"Uh huh," Zixx murmured, falling back against his mound of pillows and hacking into his arm, his eyes glazed over.

Donnie _tsked_ as he picked up the thermos of chamomile tea that Leo had insisted he give to Zixx and poured some out into the cap. "Drink this," he ordered as he held it to the man's lips. "It will help you sleep."

Zixx obeyed without question, his eyes already beginning to droop once he had finished. "Thank you," he murmured, burrowing weakly into his pillows.

Donnie nodded, even though he was happy that the man had spoken outside of being spoken to. "I'll be back to check on you in a few hours. Get some rest," he ordered as he wiped the cap down and screwed it back on top of the thermos. He left the room and pulled the door closed as quietly as he could.

"How's the patient?" Donnie didn't even jump at hearing the voice behind him. Even though he had been neglecting training for the last three months in favor of caring for Zixx, his heightened senses were still very much intact.

"No change," Donnie replied, turning to face the speaker. "How are things at the company going?"

Dr. Darius Dunn sighed heavily as he ran a hand down his face. Convincing O'Neil Tech, and the entire city of New York City, that he was the real Darius Dunn hadn't been as difficult as they had thought it would be. A simple DNA test had proven his claim, but the paperwork to transfer the company over to him had been immense. Cody was now once again to inherit the company when he turned twenty one, instead of being the head of the company already.

"Exhausting," Darius smiled wearily, his kind eyes showing just how true that statement was. He and Donatello had become fast friends, bonding over their love of science, although Donatello was an engineer and he a biologist. "How is my nephew?"

"Still a little shook up," Donnie replied. "I think he would be better if he'd only had to cope with discovering Vanderbilt wasn't his real uncle. The man did raise him for so long, and when . . . well, you know, happened, I think it really hit him."

Darius sighed. "I wish I could spend more time with the boy, but you have no idea just how much Vanderbilt messed the company up. It may take me years to fix the damage he wrought. I just hope the boy will come to love me as he once loved that impostor."

Donnie smiled and laid a hand on the doctor's shoulder. "I believe he already does, Darius."

Darius smiled for a moment before his face suddenly turned serious again. "What about you, Donatello? How are you feeling?"

Donnie's smile disappeared instantly, replaced by a guarded expression. "Why do you ask?"

"You seem . . . off, somehow. Is something bothering you?" Darius asked quietly. "Your brothers have mentioned that you're not quite yourself. Does this have anything to do with our patient?" He nodded at the door to the improvised sick room.

Donatello's guarded expression remained, although he looked to be wavering. He had been waiting three whole months for somebody to approach him. He had really been expecting Leo to step up, but the oldest turtle was always a little on guard around him. Donnie guessed that he hadn't quite forgiven himself for the argument that they had, had. Donnie couldn't really blame him, since he hadn't forgiven himself either.

"Please, Donatello," Darius encouraged, stepping forward and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "Your family is worried about you, including me. You four are like my nephews too, and your father is like a brother to me. I care about you."

Donnie nodded and sank to the floor, turning so his shell was to the wall. "Sit, please," he patted the floor beside him and waited until the doctor sat, grunting with the effort. Donnie smiled absentmindedly.

Darius noticed the smile. "Not as young as I used to be, I guess."

Donnie's smile wavered as he continued. "I brought her here."

Darius blinked. "Eh?"

Donnie's smile had completely disappeared now. "You know who I'm referring to. Alexa. I brought her here."

"Now, wait just a minute, young . . . turtle—"

"I brought her here, Darius!" Donnie snapped, fighting to hide the heat quickly rising to his face. "She killed Vanderbilt and she nearly killed Zixx!"

"Donatello," Darius interrupted firmly, putting a hand on the turtle's shoulder," first off, you could not _possibly_ have known what she was capable of. And, secondly, you do not know for certain that it _was_ Miss Rodriguez who attacked the man Zixx. He has made no confirmation of that fact."

"He hasn't said_ anything_ about it, Darius!" Donnie protested. "I just don't _get_ it! What is _wrong_ with him?! It's like he's lost the will to live!"

"Donatello!" Darius snapped, once again silencing the turtle. He sighed and gently squeezed his friend's shoulder before dropping his hand. "Please, you will wake your patient. Now, blaming yourself for what Miss Rodriguez did is foolish, and you know it. That woman was messed up to begin with. If anything, _I_ should have done something. I, at least, had some idea of what she was capable of. _You_ did not. However, blaming yourself for another's sins is not only wrong, it's unhealthy."

Donnie sighed and dropped his head into his hands. "It's not just that, Darius . . ." he trailed off.

"Go on," the doctor encouraged, re-placing his hand on Donatello's shoulder.

Donnie sighed once more and raised his head to look at the doctor, resting his elbows on his knees, his hands dangling near his feet. "Leo was right, about everything. He always is." To say the least, the doctor was a little confused at this pronouncement, but he made no move to interrupt. "I'd lost all will to live, Darius. Just like Zixx. I _let_ the cruiser crash. I tried to commit suicide. And now, because of something _I_ did, somebody else is heading down that same path. He may not be heading out on a suicide run, but Zixx is dying. It's as if he's willing himself to death."

"Donatello," Darius murmured once it was clear the purple-clad turtle had finished. "I thought you were merely bearing the burden of someone else's sin. But, turns out, you are bearing the _world_ on your shoulders. You are only seventeen, Donatello. You cannot possibly believe that it is your fault that Mr. Zixx's health is in such a state." He paused. "Is that why you took over sole responsibility for the man?"

Donnie's head dropped until it was nearly in the space between his crossed legs. "You guessed it," he murmured.

Darius frowned. "I was under the impression that it was your brother Leonardo who had the tendency to blame himself for things that he could clearly not have controlled."

Donnie met the doctor's gaze. "What makes you think he isn't?" The doctor looked confused, so Donnie knew he had to elaborate. "Let me explain my brother to you, doctor. Last year, he went through a bout of depression. He was blaming himself for the fact that he could not save us. We had to blow up a ship in order to rid the world of the Shredder." Darius knew very little about this Shredder person the turtles were always referring to, but he did know that Alexa Rodriguez was the clone of his long dead adopted daughter. "Ever since then, he's made more of an effort to withhold his guilty feelings. It's not that he doesn't have them—he just shows them differently. Haven't you noticed that he basically avoids me?" Darius shook his head. He was rarely around, and only knew about Donatello because the turtle currently in discussion had cornered him three days ago and had begged him to "talk some sense into him." "It's because he still feels guilty about what he said to me. I was over it a long time ago, but try telling him that."

Donnie sighed and leaned his head back to rest it against the wall behind him. "I guess I just haven't learned how to conceal my emotions yet. Leo's a master at it."

Darius suddenly stood and looked down at a surprised Donnie. "I am beginning to believe that the real problem here is that you and your brother did not truly make amends that day."

Donnie rolled his eyes and stood. "And why do you believe that?"

"It seems that you have been avoiding him as much as he has been avoiding you." Darius was really just guessing, but he was inwardly crossing his fingers and hoping he was correct.

Donnie laughed shortly, the action sounding sarcastic to Darius's ears. "In case you hadn't noticed, doctor, I've kinda been avoiding everybody."

"All right, then," Darius muttered. "But, I do still believe that there is some tension between you two."

Donnie sighed as he strolled briskly down the hallway leading to the main room, Darius at his heels. "There's no tension between us, Darius. Leo just needs a little time to accept I've forgiven him, and that he was right all along anyway, and get over it."

Darius suddenly slammed on the brakes, startling his companion. "Of course! _That's_ why you're angry at him! Because he _hasn't_ gotten over it yet!"

"I'm _not_ angry at him, Darius," Donnie practically growled. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Mike said he made pizzas."

"You know," Darius commented, continuing to trail the turtle. "I just realized that you haven't called Michelangelo 'Mikey' in quite awhile."

"Your point?" Donnie snapped.

Darius shrugged in reply. "Just an observation."

Upon their entering the main room, Darius ceased his interrogation, and they went their separate ways, not that this was anywhere near over. Donnie marched over to where Mikey and Raph were engaged in an old cartoon show and plopped down on the couch next to Mikey. Mikey glanced at him momentarily, noticed the glower plastered on his face, and decided it would be wisest to just pretend his brother had never sat down.

Donnie waited for five long minutes for either of his brothers to ask him what was wrong, before he got fed up and stomped away. Darius followed him with his eyes, his curiosity piqued at the uncharacteristic reaction. The pieces were beginning to fall together in his mind as he realized what was _really_ bothering the purple-clad turtle.

"Master Darius!" Serling suddenly broke the odd tension, bursting into the room, his circuits fizzing as his mouth blinked rapidly as if he were breathing heavily. "Come quickly! Something is wrong with that _confounded_ contraption!"

"The portal!" Cody cried, bursting in through the kitchen and disappearing out the doorway. The others in the room stood still, shocked, for several moments before their brains clicked back on and they hurried to follow the frantic boy.

The lab was crowded when three of the turtles, their clones, Darius, and Serling squeezed through the door and watched the portal in amazement. It was whirring and spluttering, as if it were about to explode. "Donnie, help me!" Cody exclaimed. Donatello wasted no time in hurrying to his friend's assistance.

Mikey burst through the door with Master Splinter at his heels. "There!" Mikey exclaimed, pointing at the portal even though he had, had no idea that's what was wrong when he had gone to get the old rat.

Master Splinter stared at the portal in shock. "What is wrong with it, my son?" He directed the question at Donatello, but the purple-clad turtle was much too busy helping Cody to reply.

Darius decided he'd best answer, even though he didn't quite know what was happening. "I believe that the portal may be starting up."

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New York City may have been a pretty city masking a darker underneath, but other parts of the world weren't as nice. The Middle East was a region that hadn't changed much following the treaty signed among humans and many other alien races. Aliens that had migrated to Earth and begun their own small populations had intermingled with the human population, but they were the only sign that the treaty had ever been signed.

Alexa hopped down off of her camel and adjusted her hood over her face. She had changed into an ankle-length dress reflexive of the culture she was now in, and the hood did well to hide her clearly non-Middle-Eastern features. The young man who was acting as her guide wordlessly took her camel by the reins and led it over to a post where he tied it.

Alexa breathed in deeply before letting the breath loose. Upon stabbing her brother, she had realized that she could no longer remain in New York. She couldn't risk those turtle things tracking her down and turning her over to the legal system. Her crimes were worthy of death, and she had no desire to die for what she had done.

"Where is it?" She asked her guide once he had returned to standing by her side. His head only came up to her shoulder, although his hair made him appear a few inches taller. He hadn't spoken a word since she had hired him, but he was still proving to do be an excellent guide.

He pointed and she followed his finger to where she saw a multi-colored tent set up in the middle of nowhere. She nodded once at the man before she took off briskly across the desert sand. She was now grateful that she had traded her high-heeled boots for a pair of leather sandals, since she doubted she would be able to walk in her favorite footwear.

She reached the tent in a few minutes and ducked under the flap. "May I ask who you are?" The only occupant of the tent asked without turning from his place bowed over a small table topped with incense and candles. The tent's bottom had been layered with brightly colored rugs, and the sides were piled with just as brightly colored pillows.

"My name is Alexa Rodriguez," Alexa began, seating herself cross-legged on the floor a few feet from the man. "And I have come because I heard you know of Sh'Okanab0."

The man's back stiffened and he whirled around to face her. His face was mostly hidden by a traditional Arabic hood that was wrapped around his head. His robes hung heavily on his scant frame and his beady eyes bore into her as he hissed. "How do you know that name?"

Alexa's gaze had not wavered, her emerald green eyes piercing him and pinning him to the spot. "That is none of your concern. I wish to know of a portal that he built."

"He did not build it," the man hissed. "Some boy did. He simply copied the design."

Alexa scowled and hissed under her breath, "Cody." She glanced up at the man, having regained her composure. "I wish to know how I can travel back in time."

The man watched her for a moment before he turned back around and picked up a glass ball from the table before him that his body had hidden before. He wordlessly stood and handed her the ball, sitting back on the floor, now facing her.

Alexa stared suspiciously at him, about to insult him, when the ball suddenly began to spark, and an image formed in it. "What the—?" She hissed, glaring into the ball, her shock making her pause. "What is this?!" As she continued to watch, the image focused and she was able to make out the scene. "The turtles!" She hissed. From what she could tell, the turtle named Donatello and the boy genius were frantically trying to rewire a ring of steel that was sparking. The closer she looked, she realized that the center of the ring was beginning to blur, as if a portal were opening.

Her eyes snapped up to stare at the man in shock. "The portal!"

The man nodded once and pulled something from the folds of his robe, holding it out to her. She stared at him for a moment before she took it, turning it over in her hands. "What is—?"

"Sh'Okanabo had a minion," the man interrupted. "She was a computer virus that had taken on human form. With a touch of that button, you can reactivate her, and she can send a copy of the portal here which you can go through. Assuming that the turtle creature and the boy can get the original portal working, that is."

Alexa turned her attention back to the ball, and something caught her eye. "Who is . . . ?" She trailed off when she realized who it was. "No, it can't be! He's dead!" Her adoptive brother had staggered into the picture, clearly drawn by the pull that the portal was emitting. She watched in amazement as he dragged himself towards the portal. The others were much too engrossed in what was occurring around them to pay him any mind.

"This cannot be—" She once again fell silent when the center of the ring of steel suddenly snapped and a rift in matter opened to reveal a time from one hundred years past. Without even being aware of what she was doing, Alexa pressed the button on the remote.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

"It's open!" Donnie and Cody cried at the same time.

"Hurry!" Cody exclaimed. "Before it closes again!"

"But, what about you?" Leo asked, stepping forward, only stopping when his sensei put a hand on his shoulder.

Cody shook his head and smiled. "I've got my Uncle Darius, and the guys can take care of me!"

"Yes," Nardo suddenly announced, stepping forward and bowing to Cody. "We will serve you with our lives, for you have given us ours."

Cody shook his head and hurried over to the enormous blue turtle, reaching up to put a hand on his arm. "I only ask for your friendship."

For the first time in his short life, Nardo actually cracked a smile, as small as it was. The other three dark turtles cried for joy and crowded around their brother and new charge.

"I will take care of him," Darius promised, putting a comforting hand on Leo's shoulder. "It is all right."

During the tearful goodbyes, Serling was beginning to fidget, scratching at his steel belly as if he had an itch. "What on earth?" He muttered. When his vision began to turn a multitude of reds and oranges, he realized that something was terribly wrong. "Master!" He cried before he lost complete control of himself.

Mikey and Raph had already stepped through the portal, leaving only Leo, Donnie, and Master Splinter. "Serling!" Cody cried in alarm, running to help his friend.

"Cody!" Donnie tried to rush forward and stop his friend, fearing something he could not quite name, but Leo grabbed his arm and drew him towards the portal. "Leo, let go!"

"Come on, Donnie!" Leo exclaimed. "He's fine! Serling's just probably malfunctioning!"

"Hurry, my sons!" Splinter exclaimed. Without a word, the rat grabbed his sons and hustled them to the portal. "Go through!"

"But, Master Splinter!" They protested as one.

"Go!" The old rat cried. Leo nodded once before grabbing Donnie again and dragging him through the portal after him.

"Something's wrong with Serling!" Cody exclaimed, frantically pawing at his friend's control panel located behind the panel on his back. "I can't regain control!"

"Cody, move!" Nardo suddenly leapt forward and snatched the boy away the moment before the robot went berserk.

"I! Can't! Stop! Myself!" Serling cried as he barreled towards the portal.

"No!" Master Splinter cried, diving for the robot as he crashed into the portal, causing it to explode.

When the smoke had cleared, all the still coughing remaining occupants could see were the wasted remains of the portal, no sign of Master Splinter or Serling.

"No!" Cody screamed, ripping from Nardo's grasp and throwing himself at the pile. "Serling! Come back!"

Darius rushed forward and pulled his nephew away. Cody cried and threw himself into his uncle's arms, sobbing for the loss of his lifelong friend and caretaker. "He's gone!" He cried into the man's chest. "He's just—gone!"

Tello took several tentative steps forward and knelt beside the pile. "They all are," he murmured, closing his eyes.

"Do you think they made it?" Angelo asked tearfully.

"I'm sure they did, Angie," Nardo soothed, but his attention was on his purple brother. Tello stood and met his gaze, looking as hopeless as they did.

"I don't know," he admitted, dropping his head in shame.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

Alexa stared at the swirling purple vortex before her with both horror and awe. She had already dropped the remote, shocked at the scene that had happened in the ball. She hadn't quite worked up the nerve to jump through the small circle yet.

"Well?" The man grouched, causing her to swing around and stare at him, her eyes still wide with shock. "Are you going through or not?"

His question made Alexa snap out of her trance and look at the portal in a new light. "Yes," she hissed, leaping through without a backwards glance.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

"Master Splinter!" Donnie screamed after he and Leo fell through the portal on the other side. Upon their exit, the glowing purple circle disappeared, their sensei nowhere in sight.

"Donnie!" Leo cried, grabbing his brother by the elbows and dragging him away. "There's nothing you can do!" The oldest turtle wanted nothing more than to break down himself, especially since this wasn't the first time their sensei had disappeared on them, but he couldn't with Donnie's already being so fragile.

Donnie suddenly paused and ripped away from him. "Oh, yes, there is." He growled, marching away with a plan already forming in his mind.

"It's not jus' Masta Splintah we lost," Raph observed, watching his brother disappear. "I'd like ta know whateva happened to Donatello."

**AN: I give up! I finally caved! Yes, the ending is open-ended, indicating I will probably write a sequel. Nah, not probably. There's too many loose ends to torture you all with if I don't write one. Don't expect it for awhile, though. I learned my lesson on my two current stories (including this one). I need to have stories close to done before I begin posting!**

** Now, thank you to everybody who reviewed! I love you all! Abbess Marie, dondena, Starfire201, tmntfanatic (guest reviewer?), Who Am I. Well. I'm just Me, thecartoongirl22, Guest (guest reviewer—just in case), Confused (guest reviewer), No More Love, TMNTfan95, The White Grim (guest reviewer?), ShadowCat2428, Yuhi-san, J. Guest or Just Call Me J (guest reviewer [And, dude, no big deal that you double-reviewed. I don't judge!]), madagascarmaster, Rivenchu, and Pulpomolcagetero. Wow, my spell check went crazy on some of those. Anyway! Also, a big thanks to anybody who favorited, followed, or just plain read this story! Yay, it's finally done! I can move on with my life! Until I start the sequel, of course! (That was sarcasm.)**


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